You Have My Back - Right?
by catsmeou
Summary: Dead Air tag. AU. McGee and Ziva discovery that a couple of hours of peace and quiet stolen while on the job comes with a price. If you like McGee and Ziva, you might want to pass on this story.
1. Chapter 1

McGee and Ziva discovery that a couple of hours of peace and quiet stolen while on the job comes with a price. Second warning: If you like McGee and Ziva, you might want to pass on this story.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Second story offered up for what I hope is your enjoyment. Unlike the first story, this one isn't quite finished yet, so it won't be updated as quickly. Thanks to Scousemuz1k, Binky, and SASundance for feedback, suggestions, and encouragement. All booboos are mine.

Chapter 1

A sharp tapping on both car windows sounded loudly in the peaceful quiet.

Jerking awake from a half doze, Ziva dropped the book she'd been holding then stopped her reflexive reach for her weapon at the sight of a gun barrel pointed straight at her head from a couple of feet away. Next to her, McGee was slower to respond, engrossed in his technical journal, but as his eyes opened wide at the sight of the handgun's barrel taking dead aim at him from the other side of the closed car window he dropped the magazine and raised his hands.

As quickly as she'd frozen, Ziva reverted to her default setting of annoyance, and rolled her eyes, starting to drop her hands. The gun's holder cocked it, and his eyes narrowed as he commanded loudly, "Keep your hands in sight!"

McGee said nervously, "Ah, Ziva, I think you should do what they say. They're a bit nervous and might just…"

Ziva interrupted him, yelling back at the man, "We are federal agents! I suggest you put your weapons away before we…"

"Ziva! Just do what they say for now. We can set this right easily enough without causing a problem. Gibbs will kill us if we attract attention."

Scowling, Ziva raised her hands vowing to kill McGee with a _half_ a paperclip if these cops didn't back off and leave them alone quickly.

Both the car doors were jerked open and they were ordered to exit the car and place their hands on the top of their car. McGee quickly complied, hoping Ziva would just do what she was told to for once. As the cop on his side of the car spotted his Sig holstered at his waist, she yelled at her partner, "Gun!"

Eyeing the cop who stood just out of range, Ziva slowly, insolently turned to put her hands on the car top. She told him, "We are federal agents. Put that gun away before I rip it from your hands and shove it down your throat."

The officer didn't bat an eye at her threat, "Keep your hands on the car, Miss. If you are who you say you are, then we will find out soon enough. Until then, you will do as you're told."

Fuming, Ziva stared over her shoulder at the cop who spoke. Miss? _Miss? _

McGee squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that the officer wouldn't shoot first and ask questions later if Ziva didn't calm down.

Within a minute, McGee and Ziva were both disarmed though in Ziva's case, the four knives in addition to her Sig Sauer and backup weapon seemed a bit excessive even to McGee. Since McGee had been reasonable and complied with the officer's orders quickly and without fuss, he remained uncuffed. Ziva, however, tried once to resist when being disarmed and had been surprised when the cop expertly countered her moves. As a result, she was not only in cuffs, but she was unable to attempt to free herself as the cop kept a restraining hand on the cuffs, not leaving her unattended. It was obvious that Ziva hadn't made herself popular with them. McGee silently sighed with relief when the two cops remained professional in spite of the eyerolls and less than cooperative attitude of his fellow agent.

The older of the two officers, a graying and lean man whose watchful eyes and controlled expression gave away little of what he was thinking, passed Ziva's credentials to his partner, a younger woman whose friendly disposition put McGee at ease. The officer returned to the police cruiser to call in and confirm their identities.

The officer commented, "You're making the neighbors here nervous by sitting in your car for a while now not doing much of anything. They're big on neighborhood watch here. I doubt the feds have such bottomless resources as to let the two of you sit idly in a car in the middle of a gated neighborhood for hours. Care to share what you're doing?"

Ziva looked him up and down over her shoulder, and snorted, "You do not need to know."

McGee turned to her, and scolded her in a low voice, "Ziva, you don't need to antagonize them! They're just doing their job. Cut it with the attitude." He forced himself to not step back as she glared at him sharply.

Turning to the officer, he tried to compensate for Ziva's rude manner, embarrassed at her behavior as well as being caught out with no warning. "We're working a murder investigation. Our partner's out canvassing the neighborhood posing as someone interested in buying a house in the area. We're gathering voice recordings of the residents to compare to a message we have on voice mail. We're hoping that we'll get a match and identify the man who left the voice message."

"What's your interest in the man who left the message?" The cop shifted closer to the car, eyeing the interior through the open front doors, still not removing his hand from the cuffs around Ziva's wrists to her frustration.

McGee spoke before Ziva could, seeing she was ready to impatiently snap at the officer, "He's a person of interest in the murder of a Naval officer. We have reason to believe that he may live in this neighborhood, and just want to ask him some questions at this time."

The other officer returned, handing the IDs to McGee with a "They check out," to her partner.

As soon as Ziva as uncuffed, she immediately retrieved her weapons. "If you are satisfied, you can leave. We do not need your presence here attracting any attention."

With a non-committal smile that didn't reach his eyes, the first officer stared at her, not moving an inch. "Where's your partner? We'll avoid the area he's in and let the other patrols in the area know what's up so you won't be bothered again."

Irritated at the officer for not leaving, Ziva said, "We do not know exactly where he is, but he should be returning soon."

Raising an eyebrow, the man asked, "Takes three of you to gather voice recordings? Seems like it'd be a one person job."

McGee leaned into the sedan and turned on the receiver, catching Tony's slightly breathless voice as he called out to 'jogger people'. "Yeah, but you never know when something might come up - gotta cover each other's backs." Eyeing his watch and doing some quick calculations in his head, he told the officers, "Tony should be back within the next 15 minutes – he's been working his way back in this direction. It'd be great if you could avoid the area for another half hour or so until we finish."

The woman officer said in a quiet aside to her partner that the agents couldn't hear, "How do you back up your partner if you don't know where he is?"

The older officer acknowledged his partner's comment with a quiet nod, then spoke to the two agents, "You need any help, just let us know." With that, the officers left.

McGee and Ziva exchanged glances, "Well, at least it was a break from the monotony, McGee."

Taking a deep breath and relaxing, McGee replied, "Yeah. I hope Tony's almost finished though. Wonder how much longer he's gonna be." With a yawn, he wandered around the car for a minute stretching his legs before joining Ziva inside, picking up his magazine and trying to find where he'd left off.

-000-

Later that evening, the older officer picked up the reports of the day's actions from the printer that he and his partner had finally finished. Damn paperwork was gonna be the death of him he grumbled quietly. As the two officers quickly sorted out and stapled together the incident reports, signing them, and eyeing the clock, the younger cop commented, "Wonder if those feds got anything useful. Be nice if they'd clue us in. Never know when we might stumble across something that'd help them out."

With a grunt, the older officer answered her, "Don't know many feds who'd give us the time of day."

As the woman pulled on her jacket, she said, "Want me to drop those off on my way out?"

"Nah. Gotta hit the john. I'll drop 'em off on the way. Get outta here and enjoy the rest of the evening."

"Ok. See you tomorrow then."

As he sorted out the last pages, he stopped to review the report on the feds. Snotty lady, he opined as he thought about Ziva. Her partner didn't seem too happy with her – even called her out on it. Waste of resources though for both to be there. One person would have been enough to cover their partner. Must be nice to have the resources to have two of them sitting around all day.

He wondered how their partner viewed them sitting in quiet solitude while he did the legwork…and how could they have been backing him up if the receiver had been off? He clearly remembered the man, McGee, turning it on just before they left. If that's how they ran things at this fed agency, he was glad he was a cop. Shaking his head at such a lapse in protocol and judgment, he picked up a pencil and wrote a quick note on the report, "Receiver not on. How could the two feds in the car back up their partner if they couldn't hear him and had no idea where he was?" Let some bean counter at their agency ponder that one, he thought.

Grabbing his jacket, he picked up the reports, turned off his desk lamp, and headed off, thinking of a nice cold beer and barbeque wings for dinner….

-000-

The following week, a manilla envelope containing a courtesy copy of the incident report from the responding PD arrived at the NCIS mailroom and was routed to a growing pile of low priority mail awaiting sorting and forwarding to the appropriate departments. Unfortunately, the two person unit that was responsible for this was only manned sporadically when the envelope arrived. One person was on maternity leave, and the other had unexpectedly transferred to Florida to care for an elderly relative who'd become incapacitated and needed living assistance.

The person hired to replace the staff member who'd resigned struggled through the backlog, but it took another two weeks before all the mail had been properly forwarded. The clerk, after reading enough of the report to check on the relevant associated case, was unsure where to send it. He was a newly minted paralegal and gung-ho on determining the mail routing based on his expensive and unseasoned education. Proud that he'd thought of it, he wondered if the report should be considered discoverable under the pretrial discovery process. But, who would know that answer? Should he send it to the legal department maybe?

Shrugging, he stuck a short sticky note on the report with his question and tossed it in the stack of mail heading to legal and promptly forgot about it.

-000-

Two days later, the report landed on the desk of a NCIS legal analyst. The analyst read the clerk's note, scanned the report, did a quick check on the case, and jotted a negative to the clerk's question. After adding a routing slip to send the report to the archives, she paused as she read the anonymous penciled comment. Dismissing it as irrelevant, and busy with other more pressing matters, she tossed it into the outgoing basket on her desk.

After lunch, the analyst picked up the outgoing stack of files and headed to the department's outgoing mail bin to send the items onward. She'd lifted her hand to drop the stack into the bin headed back to the mail room, then hesitated. Why had the receiver been off she wondered as she recalled the penciled note. Nothing had come of it since the investigative notes for that assignment hadn't mentioned anything extraordinary happening. But….thinking more on it she wondered, if the two field agents had been there to provide backup for Tony DiNozzo, why _had_ the receiver been turned off?

Shaking herself mentally, she asked herself what business was it of hers? Gibbs had his own way of running his team, and maybe that was one of those special rules of his. And he certainly wouldn't remotely like anyone questioning how he ran his team. She didn't want to deal with him on _anything_. Nodding to herself, she tossed the stack into the bin and started to turn away.

An annoying internal voice spoke up even louder -_ why had the receiver been off_? Darn it, she scolded herself, what difference does it make to me? Maybe there was a reason why it was turned off. But…she, like most people in the building, knew of Ziva David's temper, and how she didn't exactly like or respect Tony and wasn't all that careful about who might be around when she expressed herself on the topic. Surely she wouldn't have left Tony hanging out there without backup, would she? And surely McGee, who was sensible, wouldn't have let her get away with something like that. Right?

Why was this bothering her so much? She stood looking at the mail bin and knew that it was going to drive her nuts if she just let the report head to the archives. With a sign of exasperation, she pulled the report out of the pile and walked back to her desk. Darn it all, she was going to regret this, she just knew it.

She pulled up the investigation notes and started reading until she got to the section on the voice recordings. Reading and rereading the notes, she still found herself torn between thinking something was wrong with the receiver being off, and uncertainty as to whether she understood enough about field operations to know if there actually had been a good reason for what happened.

After several minutes of dithering, she came up with a compromise she thought she could live with. Making a copy of the report, she picked up a red pen and circled the penciled comment and put a big question mark next to it. Sticking it into a well-used interoffice envelope, she addressed it to the internal affairs office, but left the sending department field empty. Let them deal with it, she thought. If everything was kosher, then no harm, no foul. But if there was something to what had happened, then they'd get the blame for bringing it up, not her.

She returned the original report to the outgoing mail bucket, but walked down a floor to another department and tossed the envelope addressed to the IA department into their outgoing mail bin - nothing like a little careful camouflage and misdirection, just in case. Returning to her desk, she picked up another pile of work and tried to put the whole mess out of her head.

-000-

Two days later, the interoffice envelope containing a copy of the report ended up in the IA office on the desk of the agent who screened and routed incoming mail. Working her way through the stack, she finally opened the envelope and removed the report. A quick scan of the document slowed to a more detailed and careful reading. A third reading, interrupted by frequent cross-referencing of case notes on her computer took an intense hour of work.

Sitting back with a thoughtful expression, the agent organized her thoughts. Jotting down some notes on a legal pad, she finally picked up the phone and called the lead agent for the department. "Gabe? I have something that I think you should see. You busy?"

Hanging up the phone, she collected her notes and rose. With a deep breath, she headed off to the corner office….


	2. Chapter 2

Ack! Ack! I made a promise to myself to reply to each review this time round, but you wonderful people have swamped me again (not that I'm complaining)! I get pleasure from each of you who enjoy the story. In lieu of personal replies, I'm sending out chocolate dipped goodies to all! And I promise I didn't lick my fingers once while making them.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 2

Supervisory Senior Agent Gabriel Jonas stared at the papers scattered before him. Special Agent Katherine Felidae winced inwardly at the look on her boss' face, glad she wasn't in his shoes. Anything involving Gibbs' team usually ended roughly, and this mess was already looking like a simmering pot of angst and trouble before it even reached him.

Jonas squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then sighed. "Ok, talk to the officers. See if you can find out who wrote that comment on the report, and verify the details of the incident. And pull copies of the recording made on that day - see if anything on them helps clarify what happened."

Rising and refilling his mug from the coffee pot on his credenza, Jonas shook his head, "Of all the stupid things those two could do..."

Kathy gathered her papers and stood, "I'll get right on it."

"Ok. Let me know when you've finished, and we'll go through it together. And, I don't need to warn you, Kathy, to keep this quiet. As soon as Gibbs finds out…."

Nodding, Kathy said, "Yes, sir."

-000-

Felidae met the two officers at a small coffee shop the next day. Shaking their hands, she introduced herself, "Special Agent Katherine Felidae, NCIS." They ordered coffee as they settled down in a booth at the back of the café.

"I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me. We're following up on an investigation in which you had a small and inadvertent part in a few weeks ago when we were doing surveillance in the Royal Woods development."

Taking a sip of her coffee, she studied the two officers. She'd assembled a quick bio on both, and was satisfied they had the training and experience to be solid reliable witnesses should they need to be deposed. The older officer, Peter Orvine, was retired military Special Ops who'd joined the force after his wife left him and he found himself with far too much time on his hands. His younger partner, Judy Miller, had joined after she returned from a tour of Somalia as a member of the Peace Corps that left her with a keen understanding of what a lack of law and order could do to a community. They'd been partners now for seven years and had a track record of good solid police work.

Felidae continued, "You responded to a request for an area check by concerned neighbors regarding a couple who'd been sitting in a parked car for over two hours not appearing to be doing anything. Is that correct?"

At their nods, she went on, "When you investigated, you determined the two people were NCIS agents involved in surveillance activities?"

Orvine studied the agent over the rim of his coffee cup. "Wasn't surveillance according to the agents."

Glancing at the police report in front of her, Kathy nodded, "You noted that their partner, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, was out canvassing the neighbors collecting voice recordings."

The two officers just looked at her, waiting. Great, Kathy thought, two experienced cops who knew the value of silence. This was going to be like pulling teeth. She waited a few more moments hoping one of them would fill the quiet.

When it became clear the officers weren't going to comment, she was forced to ask outright. "Can you tell me what you observed when you arrived?"

Miller put her coffee down, "The two agents, McGee and David, right?" At Kathy's nod, she continued, "They were sitting in the front seats of the sedan, reading."

"You indicate that you had Special Agent David in cuffs while confirming their identity. What caused you to do that?"

Orvine calmly stated, "The agent made verbal threats, and an initial search for weapons turned up more than are usually carried by armed officers…or agents. She also briefly resisted being handcuffed. Until we confirmed her identity, we restrained her to ensure officer safety."

Jotting a note, Kathy placed a copy of the incident report before them and ran her finger lightly along the written comment. "Did one of you add this?"

Orvine finally asked what Kathy knew had been coming, "You IA?"

Pursing her lips, she laid her pen down. Looking him in the eye, she asked, "And if I were?" She wondered what their response would be. The usual reserved silence? Dancing around the questions giving nothing of use away? Told to go through proper channels?

After a long pause in which he studied her, his expression unreadable, he finally replied, "Anything happen to the agent who was out canvassing?"

She shook her head, "No."

"Why are you investigating this now, after all this time?"

"Yesterday was the first time we saw your report. It was sent to us anonymously. If what you describe in your report is accurate, then it needs to be addressed, dealt with." Looking at both of them, she said, "We need to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Judy Miller leaned forward, intense, "What doesn't happen again? What do you think happened?"

"That's what we're trying to determine. The handwritten note on the report suggests that Agent DiNozzo had been without backup for a period of time, perhaps intentionally. If this true, then it needs to be dealt with."

Orvine drained his cup of coffee. "Dealt with?"

"We make sure it doesn't happen again. And be grateful it was addressed before someone got hurt or killed."

Studying their faces closely, Kathy asked, "Which one of you wrote that note on the report?"

Signaling his partner, Orvine rose, putting a few bucks down to cover the coffee. He told Kathy, "I did. Neither McGee nor David turned the receiver off after we approached their car. It was already off. After verifying their identity, we watched as Agent McGee turned the receiver on. Agent DiNozzo's voice was easy to hear from the receiver after that. It clearly was not malfunctioning. If something had happened to Agent DiNozzo and he had called for backup, they wouldn't have heard him."

As his partner headed for the door, he added, "If you need more, you'll need to go through regular channels." With that, he followed his partner.

Well, she thought, at least they didn't up and leave as soon as they suspected she was IA. Collecting her belongings, she headed back to the office. Legal would need to send the required notices to the PD to obtain sworn statements from the two officers, but she'd gotten the information she needed.

-000-

Running into Gabe on the way to her desk, she gave him a quick rundown on the visit with the two officers. "They confirmed that the receiver was off when they arrived. McGee turned it on. DiNozzo's voice was clearly audible once he had - no receiver malfunction."

Leaning against the wall, she added, "David threatened the officers and briefly scuffled with one of the physically. They put her in cuffs until their identities were confirmed to ensure officer safety. Reasonable response considering."

Motioning towards her office, she continued, "I have a digital copy of the recordings. I'd like to send it out to be analyzed rather than do it in house. Miss Sciuto is pretty close to Gibbs and his team."

Nodding, he said, "Good idea. And put a rush on it."

"Thanks, Gabe." She was relieved. Abby was a friendly person, but she was protective of Gibbs and his team. It'd be a straight pipeline to Gibbs if Abby were asked to review her work on the recording.

-000-

The following Monday Gabe, Kathy, and Special Agent Sandy Coeist, met in a conference room. Kathy went through the information they had to date.

"We've previously reviewed the incident report of the two officers. Officer Orvine added the handwritten note. Legal has requested sworn statements from both of them which should arrive by mid-week.

"Points of interest - one: the audible playback for DiNozzo's channel wasn't on when the two officers arrived; two: David indicated they did not know where DiNozzo was at that time; three: McGee turned DiNozzo's audible playback back on while the officers watched; four: DiNozzo's voice was heard clearly by all four of them indicating the equipment was not malfunctioning; and five: McGee knew it had been turned off since he deliberately turned it back on."

Brushing back a lock of hair that'd fallen forward into her face, she continued, "Secondary issue: Agent David verbally threatened the officers without cause. She also briefly got physical with one of them when they were restraining her."

She looked at Sandy to pick up the next part.

Agent Coeist, a balding older man sporting trademark colorful suspenders, pulled a laptop closer. "The entire transcript of the recording was sent to you earlier this morning in your email. I'll skip forward in the recording to the salient part."

He used his mouse to position the playback indicator where he wanted and pressed the 'play' button. Thirty seconds of DiNozzo's observations on the resident he'd just left and of the street address of the resident he was approaching played.

_Shuffling sounds were heard, then Agent David's voice was recorded as she said, "I cannot stand this. His voice is driving me crazy. It is like nails on a school board, yes?" _

_McGee replied, "Chalkboard or blackboard, Ziva. Not school board." There was more background noise, then McGee continued, "Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. He's been talking non-stop since he started this, and he's not even half way through all the houses yet."_

_As Tony's voice continued in the background, David's voice became even more agitated, "I will go mad if this keeps up. Do something, McGee!"_

_McGee said, "He's not going to shut up, Ziva. He's supposed to be talking with the people out there. You're just going to have to suck it up."_

_Her voice lowered and took on an almost sensuous quality, "I will do your reports for the next two weeks if you can make him stop."_

_"You know I can't do that Ziva. How else is he going to get those recordings if he doesn't talk with the residents when they answer their doors?"_

_In a near scream, Ziva said, "Turn the sound off, tell him to stop talking - just do _something_ or I will kill you with a page from this book!" This was followed by the sound of paper tearing._

_There was a pause, then McGee said in a nervous tone, "Ok. Calm down…just calm down!"_

There was a touch of static as the input from their mike stopped, leaving only Tony's mike recording on the recorder.

Letting the recording play for several more seconds, Sandy finally stopped the playback. "There were two separate tracks being recorded simultaneously during this assignment, one for Agent DiNozzo, and one for the interior of the sedan. During the last 118 minutes recorded only Agent DiNozzo's channel was active. The laboratory determined that the mike input and audio playback for the sedan's channel were inactive during this period of time. The wireless mike input for Agent DiNozzo's track was active, but the audio playback was off."

Sitting back, Sandy said, "What I'd like to know is why Abby Sciuto didn't note this when she was processing the recording."

Gabe added, "And why didn't Agent DiNozzo notice their silence after that?"

No one answered.

Finally Gabe gave a weary sigh, thinking of the headache he would have by the time this whole mess was over with. Gibbs….no one wanted to deal with Gibbs. The man's temper was legendary when it came to protecting his team. One part of his mind was curious as to how the man would react though when he heard the recording. The colossal screw up that McGee and David made was impossible to ignore. Interesting situation, except he was square in the middle of it. He made a mental note to check his stock of antacids.

"Ok," he said. "I want preliminary reports on my desk by noon. I'll call the director and schedule a meeting. Might as well get this ball rolling."

-000-

Two days later, Gabe Jonas sat down at the conference table in Vance's office at the director's invitation. He placed the folder containing several documents in front of him, and gratefully accepted a hot cup of coffee from Vance.

Sitting across from him, Vance settled back, looking at the head of the IA department. They'd worked closely on several IA matters and had developed a grudging respect for each other over time. "I know that look – I usually develop a bad headache soon after you start talking. Should I get the aspirin bottle out?"

With a half-smile, Gabe shrugged, "For this one, I'd order more if I were you."

Vance's eyes narrowed, and he ran his hand down his tie. "Ok, lay it on me. What do you have."

Taking another sip of coffee, Gabe organized his thoughts, then said, "Evidence of a dereliction of duty during an investigation. Nothing happened as a result, but it was a pretty serious lapse in judgment on the part of two agents."

Frowning, Vance asked, "Which agents?"

"McGee and David. Gibbs' team."

Caught off guard, Vance was surprised. "What?"

Gabe knew of Vance's preferences for staff and agents who had a solid background in technology, and a professional demeanor and gravitas, so hearing McGee's name must have been a shock for the director.

With a deep scowl, Vance snapped, "What happened?"

Gabe took the director through what they'd mapped out during the investigation, playing the audio from a small digital recorder he pulled from a pocket. As he finished, he sat back and waiting, watching the director closely.

Vance rose and went around to his desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a fresh toothpick. Unwrapping it, he nearly bit it in half before he managed to catch himself. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and angry, "I knew I shouldn't have brought him back here. The man's a menace…"

_Bingo, _thought Gabe. His guess as to where Vance's anger would be directed was right on. "You can't lay the blame for this one on someone just because you don't like him, Leon."

"He just won't shut that mouth of his. It's enough to…" He bit it words off, pacing behind his desk.

"And you know it's a very effective technique that he uses very well. You've seen it in play more than once and have seen the results for yourself. Admit it."

"But he doesn't need to keep it up constantly! It creates a bad work environment, grates on his coworkers' nerves…"

"A bad work environment? Isn't that a bit harsh? Do you think Gibbs would put up with that?"

Vance bit through the toothpick at that, "He's a menace himself."

Gabe grinned, "For our side, thank goodness." Saluting Vance with his coffee mug, he continued, "And you've used both of them yourself when you've needed, Leon."

Scowling, Leon glared at him. "Damn it, Jonas. It is just wrong that two good agents might be disciplined because they were driven to it."

Knowing he was going to have to give the Director a reality check, Gabe stood and stopped Vance's pacing by standing in his path, "Do your agents have so little discipline and self-control that merely working with an agent they have little respect for can drive them to violate one of the most fundamental tenants of safety for agents in the field?" He pushed Vance harder, his expression deadly serious, "Because that's sure what it looks like right now. And it wasn't DiNozzo who screwed up, was it director?" Gabe wondered if Vance was going to have a stroke from bottling up his anger.

Gabe continued, "DiNozzo is fully capable of being a consummate professional when needed. I've watched him in court on more than one occasion, and he is serious, articulate, and cool as anyone I've seen on the witness stand. You may not like him personally, Leon, but he's a good agent, and you know it. And you _know_ Gibbs doesn't tolerate incompetence.

"This situation required him to interact for hours with residents in that neighborhood. If I remember right, he actually lost his voice for a while afterwards from overuse. You can't possibly label his talking in this instance as unnecessary or excessive. It was a fundamental part of this particular assignment.

"Two highly trained agents - disciplined and professional agents on the premier MCRT team of the agency – let their personal feelings interfere with the performance of their duties. They have no excuse for what they did – no circumstances presented themselves that required departing from protocol; no response was required apart from remaining vigilant and providing backup for their partner in the field. They cannot claim a lack of training as a mitigating factor. And they certainly cannot claim a lack of experience left them unsure about their job duties and responsibilities."

He eyed Vance who was trying to calm himself but still sour at the IA team leader's words. "Considering the scope of the assignment, it might have made more sense splitting the task up. Having one agent doing all the field work ended with the agent placed on limited duty for a time to recover his voice. I'd be interested in why the duties were divided out as they were. Why was one agent out in the field where possible danger was greatest, while two were sitting in the sedan? Does that seem logical to you?"

Seeing Vance's attention caught by his inquiry and the director's interest kicking in and dampening his anger, Gabe decided one last lesson wouldn't hurt. Settling back in his chair, he asked, "Would you feel the same way if it had been DiNozzo who turned the audio playback off on either McGee or David?"

Vance jerked back as if he'd been hit, knowing he'd be livid if that ever happened. He'd use it gladly as an excuse to fire DiNozzo. Forced to face his own prejudices toward someone who worked differently than he did, he finally admitted he was being unfair to DiNozzo, and the man didn't deserve that. He didn't like it, but he didn't have the luxury in his position to let it influence his actions and decisions. And he had to acknowledge the facts facing him. Two good agents had engaged in highly unprofessional behavior that could not be condoned. For many reasons, they'd have to face the consequences of their decision and actions. _What had they been thinking? _

Gabe could see when Vance let his anger go. Good. Now maybe they could make some progress on this incident. "Gibbs – any guesses on how he'll react to this?"

Closing his eyes, Vance thought, _the hell with aspirin, I need a stiff shot of whiskey_. Picking up his phone, he connected to his secretary and told her to summon Gibbs to his office immediately.

"We'll find out soon enough. The real question is how much damage he will cause before this is over with."

As Gibbs entered the office, not knocking as usual, Vance pointed at the conference table. "Sit. We have a problem…."


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry this chapter is a tad short, but the next logical breaking point is a ways further on into the story. I regret not being able to reply individually to each review – I'm astonished at the number, and am glad so many of you are enjoying the story. Special chocolate magically-non-allergic-peanut clusters on the way to all who've taken the time to share their thoughts. Drat…pesky fingerprints. I was very careful this time to not leave any. I hope.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 3

Gibbs paused for a second as he saw Gabe Jonas, then nodded a greeting as he sat down across from Vance. "Leon?"

Vance, looking stressed, nodded at Jonas to brief Gibbs.

"We have opened an investigation, Gibbs, involving two of your agents." He went through the same report he had given Vance. Stone-faced, Gibbs listened, examining the evidence, silent.

Vance could feel the anger radiating from Gibbs by the end, in spite of the man's blank expression, but he didn't know yet who would be on the receiving end when it finally let loose.

As Jonas turned the recorder off he had used to play the excerpt from the recordings taken at Royal Woods, he paused to give Gibbs time to speak. When Gibbs finished reviewing the documents, he looked to Vance. "I'll take care of this, Director."

Glancing at Jonas, Vance shook his head. "It's in IA's hands for now, Gibbs. When they're finished with their investigation, we'll have a chance to review the results. I expect your and your team's full cooperation with Internal Affairs."

"This is _my_ team, Leon. I'll deal with this. I don't know what was going through their heads, but they won't be doing this again."

Drawing a calming breath, Vance repeated, "Let IA do their work, Gibbs. We need to go through the process so we don't end up in a bigger mess later."

"Then blame me. I'm responsible for what my team does. Sanction me. Leave my team alone. I'll deal with this mess, and I guarantee this will never happen again."

"You'll be in the thick of this once IA's finished with their investigation. Until then, stay out of it. Don't make me put you on leave until this is finished, Gibbs."

Gibbs gritted his teeth, infuriated, staring daggers at the director. He preferred to mete out his own brand of punishment, designed to teach lessons never forgotten, to that of the agency's. He decided he'd work on Vance later when Gabe Jonas wasn't around. Meanwhile, he had two agents to deal with, and his own inquiries to quietly conduct to make sure nothing else was lurking out there waiting to surface and bite his team. _Damn it anyway, what were those two thinking? _

Gibbs asked Gabe, "What triggered this investigation, Jonas?" He didn't know the man well, but his reputation pegged him as an honest and pragmatic agent who ran his team efficiently – but how good were his team's investigative skills?

"We received a copy of the police report," Gabe pointed at the copy in front of Gibbs, "in an interoffice envelope. By the time it went through the mail room, there was no way to tell which department it came from. The original came from Metro PD as a courtesy copy. It went through legal to deal with a technical question, then went straight to the archived case file. We don't know who made the copy that was sent to us."

Frowning at the received date stamp on the document, Gibbs noted, "This date is several weeks old. Why the delay?"

Vance answered that, "The non-priority routing desk in the mail room was staffed infrequently for a few weeks after we had one clerk transfer to another facility for family reasons while the other clerk was on maternity leave. It took time to post a job opening, recruit, and fill the vacant position. The copy was received during that time."

Nodding, Gibbs asked, "What's next, Jonas?"

"We need to interview your team, and Miss Sciuto, and follow up on anything that comes up that needs more attention. After that's nailed down, we'll be running what we have through the Director to decide if there is any reason to get Justice involved."

Vance leaned forward, and told Gibbs in a firm voice, "You will not discuss this with your team before the interviews. And while they're under investigation, McGee and David will be on administrative leave." Looking at Jonas, he asked, "How soon can you get those interviews done?"

"We can start within the hour, Director. We have everything we're going to get from the police department, case notes, and the recordings."

Nodding, Vance ordered, "Do it. Meanwhile, I'm pulling your team off rotation, Gibbs. As soon as Jonas' team has finished their interviews with McGee and David, send them home. Let's get this wrapped up as quick as possible."

Gibbs said, "I want to be in on the interviews."

Vance shook his head. "You can watch from observation. That's as close as I want you right now."

Gabe collected up his paperwork, and stood. "Since you'll be observing, Gibbs, could you escort Special Agent David to interrogation room two in an hour?"

Gibbs nodded. When Vance rose, indicating the meeting was finished, he stopped on the cat-walk to look down into the bullpen at his team. All three were heads-down, deep into cold case files. It was all he could do to keep from yelling at Ziva and McGee, hauling them down to the gym, and pounding sense into their heads. Irrationally, he was angry with DiNozzo also for not dealing with this back when it happened.

With a sigh, he wondered if DiNozzo even knew what had happened. If not, this was going to seriously damage confidence in his teammates. As a cop, failing to protect and cover your partner's back was one of the most serious betrayals that could happen between officers. After what happened with his last partner in Baltimore, this was going to shatter, perhaps irreparably, Tony's ability and willingness to work with the other two. Gibbs didn't want to think about the ramifications of that happening.

Clamping down on his frustration, he headed for the nearest coffee shop for an extra large cup of the strongest coffee they had. He was going to need it. He also needed the time to cool off before he head-slapped certain people into a coma.

-000-

An hour later, Gibbs rose from his desk, a cup of coffee in hand. Stepping into the middle of the bullpen he stopped, waiting until he had their attention. "Ziva, with me. You two stick around."

Rising, Ziva asked, "What is going on, Gibbs?" The three glanced at each other, curious.

Expressionless, he turned and walked out of the bullpen without a word, knowing Ziva would follow. As they left, Tony and Tim looked at each other, then shrugged. They went back to working cold cases.

-000-

Stopping in front of the door to interrogation room two, Gibbs turned to Ziva. He studied her for a moment, face unreadable, before tipping his head toward the door, indicating she should enter.

She looked puzzled, "Gibbs? What is going on? Is there someone we are interrogating?"

He left her standing there and walked to the observation room door, and entered. Nonplussed, Ziva looked at the door in front of her, feeling a thread of uneasiness arise. Reaching out, she turned the handle and pushed the door open.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank every one of you who reviewed and send PMs. I hope I can continue earning them! As usual, because of the number of reviews received, replying to each one would leave me no time to write more on the story, so in lieu of personal replies, and in celebration of all the delicious fruit coming into season, I'm sending out chocolate dipped virtual strawberries to all! And yes, I licked the bowl clean…_afterwards_. Honest. All booboos are mine.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 4

Uncertain, Ziva frowned, then opened the door and walked in. A man she vaguely remembered seeing around the building was sitting at the table, looking up as she entered. Rising, he held out his hand to shake hers, "Special Agent David. I am Special Agent Gabriel Jonas, Internal Affairs. Please, sit." He retook his seat at the table, leaving her to take the seat where suspects usually sat.

Surprised, Ziva looked at the mirrored window, wondering why Gibbs was there rather than in the interrogation room. Ziva told Jonas, "I do not know what is going on here, but I will not talk with you until you explain why I am here." She refused to sit down, hovering near the door.

Studying her, Gabe motioned again to the empty chair. "Sit down and I will explain, Agent David. Please."

After several seconds, Ziva slowly moved to the chair and eased herself down, noting the video was recording the interview – she refused to think of it as an interrogation.

Smiling reassuringly at Ziva, Gabe sat back in his chair, relaxing, trying to set the woman at ease. "Thank you. As I told you, I work in the Internal Affairs office. We're looking into an event that happened when your team was working on the murder of Commander Daniels. You remember the case?"

Ziva nodded, still looking guarded and puzzled. That case had been closed several weeks ago. Why was this coming up now? What event?

Looking at his notes, Gabe asked absently, "The voice recordings Agent DiNozzo obtained from the Royal Woods residents….you were providing backup for him on that assignment along with Special Agent McGee, is that right?"

At Ziva's nod, he asked, "Can you describe what happened during that assignment?"

"Why? What are you looking for specifically? Did one of the residents complain about it?"

"Can you describe what happened on that assignment, please," he repeated.

Ziva gave the mirrored window behind the agent another look before replying, wondering again why Gibbs wasn't in the interrogation room, "Special Agent McGee and I were assigned to provide backup and ensure the voices of the residents were being recorded properly. Special Agent DiNozzo was talking to the residents, engaging them in conversations so we could record their voices to match against a voice message we had of a person of interest. It took us approximately four hours to gather voice samples from all the residents. When we were finished, we turned the recordings over to Abby for analysis."

"Where were you and Special Agent McGee during this time?"

"We were in an agency sedan parked on a street in the neighborhood where we could pick up the radio transmissions of Agent DiNozzo's microphone."

Nodding as if this agreed with his notes, Gabe asked, "Were you in contact with Agent DiNozzo during this entire period?"

Ziva nodded and said firmly, "Our recording equipment picked up every one of his encounters with the residents."

Looking up from his notes, Gabe wondered if he should call her on the lie she had made in response to his question. Finally he asked, "Did you have any contact with anyone other than your team members during this time?"

Thinking back, Ziva said, "A police patrol stopped to ask us if we needed assistance. But once we identified ourselves and explained our presence, they left. We did not see them or any other patrol cars after that."

Again nodding, Gabe shifted and looked through his notes. "How did the assignments - who was assigned to which task - how was that determined? Did Agent Gibbs assign them before you left, or did Special Agent DiNozzo assign the tasks?"

Ziva looked a little confused at the question, "There was no discussion of who did what. Tony is best at talking – he loves to hear his own voice - so he did the canvassing. McGee and I provided back up and waited in the car."

"So there was no discussion about swapping duties during the assignment – someone taking over the canvassing for an hour at a time. Nothing like that?"

Ziva scowled, "What? Did Tony file a complaint because he lost his voice? Is that not a bit childish? Is that what this is about?"

Motioning in a calming movement, Gabe said, "I'm just trying to get a feel for what happened during the assignment. It sounds like all of you were comfortable with your selected roles. Is that correct?"

Looking at him suspiciously, Ziva nodded, "Yes."

Looking satisfied, Gabe turned back to his notes. "The two officers who stopped to chat with you…do you remember what you discussed?"

With a look of distaste, Ziva said, "They had a complaint that McGee and I were acting suspicious by sitting in the car for a long period of time. They apparently though we were looking over the houses to burger them."

Puzzled, Gabe asked, "Burger?"

"Burger. To break in and steal from a home."

"Ah. Burglarize. Thank you." Gabe smiled. He asked, "Tell me about that incident. What happened?"

Ziva frowned a bit recalling what had happened, "We identified ourselves. They verified we were who we said we were. They wanted to know why we were in the neighborhood. We explained about the voice sampling Tony was doing. Then they left."

Gabe leaned back, watching Ziva carefully, "The police report indicated that you threatened them with bodily harm when they were trying to establish your identities. Tell me what happened."

Ziva snorted dismissively, "They startled us. When we tried to identify ourselves, they wouldn't listen. They insisted that we get out of the car, and then they searched us and took our weapons away. If they'd just listened and moved on, it would have been much better for all of us."

"Why did you threaten them?"

"They would not listen to what we were telling them. They had no right to demand we tell them what we were doing or who we were."

Gabe leaned back, looking at the woman's tense posture and facial expression of disgust. "A citizen called the police to check out strangers sitting in a car for a couple of hours apparently doing nothing. The police were well within their rights to stop and question you about who you are and what you were doing. As a law enforcement officer yourself, you would know this, Agent David. So, why did you threaten them?"

Ziva snapped back, "We did identify ourselves! They refused to believe us and demanded we get out of the car and disarmed us until they verified who we were."

"Which is standard operating procedure for a police stop. You are familiar with police procedures and protocols regarding approaching possibly dangerous people - to minimize danger to themselves and civilians in the area, they check for weapons first, then check identities. So, again, why did you threaten them?"

Ziva worked hard at controlling her temper. "Who are you to question what we did? We work for Gibbs, not you. Gibbs would never have asked me this question."

"As I explained when you first entered, I work in Internal Affairs. We are conducting an investigation, and you _are_ required to answer our questions. Why did you threaten the officers?"

Frustrated, Ziva snapped, "Because they were annoying! We were doing our jobs and didn't need cops interfering with our work."

Gabe leaned forward, "And they were doing their job, Agent David. You acknowledge that you threatened them. At this point, you haven't provided a valid reason for your action. Is there anything else you want to say about this matter?"

Irritated, Ziva snapped, "No!"

Sitting back, Gabe studied her for a long moment, wondering was behind this agent's behavior. Until she could provide a justifiable reason, or could explain herself, he would recommend she not be allowed back in the field.

Uneasy under the man's steady gaze, Ziva said, "Is that all? I will leave now."

Gabe shook his head, "We are not finished yet, Agent David." Glancing at his notes, Gabe continued, "You identified yourselves and the police confirmed your identities. They indicated in the report that Agent McGee explained what you were doing in the neighborhood, and said they would notify other patrols to avoid the area for the duration of your activity. Correct?"

Ziva nodded, "Yes."

"They asked where Agent DiNozzo was so they could avoid his location. Did you tell them where he was at that time?"

Ziva shrugged, "I do not recall specifically what we said. It has been a while since it happened."

Moving the end of his pen along the report text, Gabe read, "We asked where the agent canvassing the neighborhood was so we could avoid driving by his position. Agent David said, quote - We do not know exactly where he is, but he should be returning soon – quote." He looked up at her, "Is that correct?"

Shrugging, Ziva looked closely at him, feeling there was a catch to the question; something in Gabe's voice or expression that told her this question was significant. "I do not recall the exact words used."

"Did Agent DiNozzo tell you which residence he was approaching as he moved around the neighborhood? Give you the street address?"

Ziva nodded, "Yes. But we did not know where each residence was based on the street address."

Gabe asked, "So, if he were to call for backup, how would you know where he was?"

Shrugging, Ziva said, "We had a map. If he called, we would have looked at the map and responded quickly. But he did not call for back up."

"Agent DiNozzo provided you with the address of the residence he was currently at then."

Ziva gave a sharp nod, glaring at him.

"So why did you tell the officers that you didn't know exactly where he was?"

Ziva scowled, "They did not need to know."

"Did you, or did you not know where Agent DiNozzo was at the time the officers asked about his location?" Gabe's question was sharp and demanding.

Ziva pushed back, "He was close by, which is what we told the officers. That is all they needed to know."

Gabe asked again, raising his voice, demanding an answer, "Did you or did you not know where Agent DiNozzo was?"

Ziva stood, and leaned over the table, getting into his face, "Yes, we knew he was close by."

Raising an eyebrow, Gabe stared at her, calculating, assessing. Ziva sank back down into her chair with a satisfied look.

Deciding to let it go for the moment, Gabe changed direction, "One of the officers noted that the audio playback did not appear to be turned on at the time they stopped to question you and Agent McGee. He wrote that Agent McGee sat down in the driver's seat and turned it on. After that Agent DiNozzo's voice was heard as he was questioning some residents. Can you explain that?"

Ziva, sensing trouble again, replied cautiously, "He must have been mistaken."

Running his pen across the report, following the text, Gabe said, "So, the audio playback was on? Why was Agent DiNozzo's voice not audible until Agent McGee adjusted it?"

Shaking her head, Ziva shrugged dismissively, "I do not know what the officer heard or did not hear. He was a cop."

Puzzled, Gabe pressed, "A cop?"

Ziva looked at Gabe with a frown, "He was a cop. They do not always know what is going on, what is significant. They can focus on things we are not interested in. They may miss things, not report things accurately because of this."

Sitting back and laying his pen down, Gabe studied her, his brows knitted together slightly. "Police officers receive extensive training in observation. I seriously doubt they didn't understand what they saw or inaccurately reported it."

Ziva looked at him puzzled, "He is a cop. We are federal agents. I was trained by Mossad to be observant, to know everything going on around me. Cops do not receive this level of training. I do not know how accurate his observations were."

Gabe stared at her in disbelief. Surely she couldn't possibly believe what she was saying. His eyes narrowed as if he just thought of something, "Special Agent DiNozzo was a cop before he was a federal agent. Do you think his observational skills aren't up to your level?"

Ziva shrugged and didn't answer. She was getting tired of this, and wanted to leave. Somehow, she needed to find a way to bring this to an end so she could find Gibbs. Surely he knew what was going on and could stop it.

After a long pause to give her time to add more, Gabe shook himself out of the surprise he was feeling, made a few notes, then continued, "Regardless of your opinion of the officers, it appears as if there was a period of time in which you and Agent McGee did not hear what your partner was saying. As such, you wouldn't have known if the recorder was capturing the residents' voice samples, or if your partner might have needed backup. Is that correct?"

Ziva scowled, "I told you – I cannot tell you what the officers observed or did not."

Gabe leaned forward, his eyes serious and intense, "I am not asking you to respond to what the officers reported, Agent David. I am asking you if the audio playback volume was loud enough to clearly be heard by you and Agent McGee. Was the sound turned down or the audio playback turned off at any time when Agent DiNozzo was canvassing the residents?"

Ziva looked suspicious, an inkling of what he was asking and its significance finally starting to dawn on her. She struggled to find an answer that would allow her to evade answering the question.

Waiting for her response, Gabe watched as various emotions flitted across her face. Finally he picked up the remote control to a recorder and pressed the play button.

Ziva listened to the playback, her eyes going wide as she realized what had been recorded.

_David: "I cannot stand this. His voice is driving me crazy. It is like nails on a school board, yes?" _

_McGee: "Chalkboard or blackboard, Ziva. Not school board. Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. He's been talking non-stop since he started this, and he's not even half way through all the houses yet."_

_David: "I will go mad if this keeps up. Do something, McGee!"_

_McGee: "He's not going to shut up, Ziva. He's supposed to be talking with the people out there. You're just going to have to suck it up."_

_David: "I will do your reports for the next two weeks if you can make him stop."_

_McGee: "You know I can't do that Ziva. How else is he going to get those recordings if he doesn't talk with the residents when they answer their doors?"_

_Ziva: "Turn the sound off, tell him to stop talking - just do _something_ or I will kill you with a page from this book!" _

_McGee: "Ok. Calm down…just calm down!"_

There was a touch of static as Gabe hit the stop button on the remote and waited.

Ziva looked like she was going to be sick. "I….I do not…" She stopped and swallowed hard.

Gabe looked at her. "You and Special Agent McGee did not listen to your partner for almost two hours. During this time you did not know if he was in trouble and needed backup. Is that correct, Special Agent David?"

Ziva shook her head, then did what she usually did when she felt cornered and grew angry, "Tony did this, did not he? He filed a complaint. It is bad enough we had to listen to him for hours while he…. I cannot believe he would do this."

Gabe leaned forward, "You left your partner without backup for two hours. That is a firing offense, Agent David. It's in violation of several regulations and policies that you have been trained on repeatedly. It may also result in criminal charges against you. Furthermore, you lied about being in contact with Agent DiNozzo during the entire time he was out canvassing. Additionally, you threatened bodily harm of fellow law enforcement officers who were doing their job."

He shuffled the papers on the table until they were organized to his satisfaction, then addressed her, "Final chance to explain, Agent David."

After waiting for a minute to give her time to respond, she had said nothing, just staring at the mirrored window with an angry expectation, waiting for Gibbs to enter the room and stop this farce.

Resting his hands on top of his notes, Gabe said. "When the police approached the sedan, they indicated that Agent McGee had been reading a magazine and you were reading a book. Is it normal for either of you to bring along personal reading material to a field assignment?"

Ziva was puzzled, "What?"

"Do you usually bring a book with you when you are providing backup to your partner while out in the field?"

Shrugging, Ziva said, "It was going to take a while to collect all the recordings of the residents, and I wanted something to help pass the time."

Raising an eyebrow, Gabe said, "So, you anticipated you wouldn't be the one out collecting voice samples, and as such you made sure you took something with you to keep you occupied. This implies, Agent David, that you expected and planned on engaging in personal activities to pass the time rather than focusing on backing up your partner. Is that the case?"

Angry, Ziva snapped back, "No! I was there to provide backup. I just happened to bring a book in case there was…if we stopped for a meal, or it was slow…" She stumbled to a stop, cursing the man. "This is all knitting-picking! Why are you wasting time on something this…this little?"

Putting his pen down, he snapped back, "Would you have brought a book with you to read if it'd been Agent Gibbs on that assignment rather than Agent DiNozzo?"

Knowing Gibbs would have taken the book and head-slapped her with it if she had dared, Ziva refused to answer.

Sighing, Gabe said, "That will be all for now, Agent David."

As Ziva rose to leave, the door opened and Vance and Gibbs entered, both with unreadable expressions. That worried Ziva more than she'd admit. She started to appeal to Gibbs, but was cut off by the Director.

"Special Agent David, you are on administrative leave, stationed at your residence until this matter has been resolved. You will not talk to anyone on your team about this matter. We will notify you of where and when you should report if additional questions need answering. Return to your desk to collect your belongings, leave your weapon, badge, and ID with Special Agent Gibbs, then go home. Do not talk to anyone. Do you understand?"

Ziva continued to look at Gibbs, appealing mutely to him for support. When he didn't respond, she felt like the bottom had fallen out of her stomach. Reaching out, she almost touched Gibbs.

Before she could reach him, he turned and said, "With me, David." Leading her back to the bullpen, he waiting while she collected her coat and belongings. Facing him she started to speak, "Gibbs, what…"

He cut her off, speaking softly but firmly, "I don't want to hear it."

Worried and confused at his response, she placed her gun, badge, and ID in his hands, and with a quick glance at McGee who was staring at her wide-eyed, she turned and left, not daring to look at Tony.

As she entered the elevator, Tony rose and asked Gibbs in a shocked tone, "Gibbs? What's going on?"


	5. Chapter 5

Boy, the reviews keep stacking up! I love all you guys for taking the time to let me know your thoughts on the little tale I'm spinning here. Thanks once again to Scousemuz1k, Binky, and SASundance for feedback, suggestions, and pokes to keep me motivated. All booboos are still mine. And now, for all of you, this chapter's treats will be chocolate moose, er, mouse, no wait – mousse! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 5

"With me, DiNozzo. McGee, stay put." With that Gibbs headed for the elevator. Arriving at the coffee shop, Gibbs ordered a large coffee, and a cup of hot cocoa for Tony. He pointed to a vacant table in the corner.

Sitting across from Gibbs, Tony took the offered cocoa, worried. Hot cocoa was reserved for major repair and recovery moments – what was going on? Looking at the barely concealed anger in Gibbs' tightly controlled expression, he sipped his hot cocoa and waited, not daring to speak. Whatever was going on had Gibbs seriously troubled; he hadn't seen him this upset since the whole nightmare with Ari. After a few minutes, he was caught by surprise when Gibbs stood and got a refill for the cup he'd emptied. He scrambled after him when Gibbs headed back to headquarters without a word.

Several times, Tony opened his mouth to ask Gibbs what was going on, but seeing the clenched jaw and set face, he remained silent. What was going on? What had happened to Ziva?

Striding straight through the middle of the bullpen without stopping or slowing down, Gibbs barked, "Tony, sit. McGee, with me."

McGee had a scant second to glance questioningly at Tony, who shook his head looking absolutely baffled, before he hustled to catch up with Gibbs. "Boss?"

Reaching the door into interrogation room two, Gibbs paused long enough to point at the door, "In there, McGee." Striding to the observation room door, he entered without looking back.

McGee stood opened mouthed with surprise for several seconds, wishing he'd had time to talk to Tony, before he slowly opened the door and entered the room. He instantly recognized Gabriel Jonas, and a cold chill swept through him. What was going on? He swallowed nervously as Jonas rose to offer his hand.

"Special Agent McGee, I am Special Agent Gabriel Jonas, Internal Affairs. Please sit and we'll get started."

Wide-eyed, and starting to sweat a little, McGee shook the man's hand then sank down into the chair. "Ah, what's going on, Special Agent Jonas?" Given how angry Gibbs was, something pretty serious had happened, and McGee was apprehensive about going into whatever it was blind.

With a reassuring smile, Gabe met his eyes and said, "Relax, take a deep breath." Referring to his notes, Gabe dove right in, "IA is looking into an event that happened during your team's investigation into the death of Commander Daniels several weeks ago. Do you remember that case?"

Puzzled, McGee nodded, "Yes, a group of neighbors planned a bombing at a park in an attempt to push their agenda of diverting funds to local needs rather than sending it overseas to fund the war in the Mideast."

Nodding, Gabe said, "That's the case. Special Agent DiNozzo, Special Agent David, and you were tasked with canvassing the Royal Woods neighborhood to collect voice samples of the residents in hopes of finding a match to a voice message left by a person of interest. Do you recall that assignment?"

Casting his memory back over that particular job, he tried to figure out what could possibly have caught the attention of the IA office. "Yes, I do."

"Walk me through it; describe what happened."

With thoughts racing through what happened that day that could possibly have been a problem, he said, "Well, we arrived on scene and selected a quiet residential street near the center of the neighborhood to park. It was important that the entire area being canvassed was within receiving range of the wireless radio transmitter used to capture the conversations with the residents.

"Tony…Agent DiNozzo worked a spiral pattern through the neighborhood, from the outermost streets and traveling inward. He approached each residence, rang the doorbell or knocked, and when the occupants answered, he engaged them in a short conversation about some feature in the neighborhood as if he were looking to buy a house and was checking out the area."

"Special Agent David and I remained in the car to monitor the recordings and to provide back up if something happened. We were there for roughly four hours. Once we had canvassed as many residents as we could locate, we returned to headquarters and turned the recordings over to Abby Sciuto for analysis."

Nodding as if what McGee had reported matched what he expected, Gabe looked up and asked, "Nothing unusual happened while this was going on?"

Shaking his head, McGee said, "No, it was a fairly straightforward and uneventful assignment." He sat up straight, "Wait, there was one thing. A police cruiser stopped by to check on us. Apparently a neighbor had called and reported suspicious activity since we were parked for a long period of time without getting out of the car. We identified ourselves, explained what we were doing. They left, saying they'd make sure no other patrols went through the neighborhood until we were gone."

Nodding, Gabe asked while shuffling papers, "You ensured the equipment was functioning correctly and monitored the recording to make sure it was working. Is that right?"

McGee nodded, "Yes."

Pulling out the police report, Gabe studied it silently for several seconds. Running the tip of his pen along the text, he asked, "One of the officers wrote that you sat down in the driver's seat of the car, and appeared to turn the audio playback on. After you made this adjustment, Special Agent DiNozzo's voice could be heard as he was interviewing someone. Can you explain what you did, and why?"

McGee's mind ran through one thought after another in rapid succession. Conceivably the equipment could have malfunctioned and some of the residents not recorded and he wouldn't have caught it, but they had identified the caller who left the voice message, so that couldn't be the problem.

So what…suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place; realization crashed over him. Backup. Tony had no way to call for backup if something had happened. And Ziva had been in the car instead of with him out in the field. He felt as if someone had belted him in his gut, and felt his face go white as blood drained from it. Up to that point, he hadn't really thought about leaving Tony without a way to call for help. It had been a quiet neighborhood on a quiet day, and nothing had happened to threaten Tony as far as he knew. Ziva had turned the audio playback off again shortly after the officers had left, and when they had told Tony they hadn't been listening to him when he'd returned to the car, he seemed more interested in finding something to drink because of his irritated throat.

Had he been the one to notify IA about it? No, that wasn't how Tony did things. If Tony had an issue with something they'd done, he'd have talked with them directly. He'd be surprised if Tony had even mentioned it to Gibbs.

Realizing they'd been caught out, not owning up to it would only make things worse. Resigned, he sat up straighter, "We had turned the audio playback off for a short period. I turned it back on when the two officers were there to verify that Tony was still conducting interviews."

Staring at McGee, Gabe felt relief that McGee hadn't tried to hide what they had done. And, from the various expressions that ran across McGee's face during the brief time before he answered, it seemed he'd realized far too late that he was in trouble. Now the question was, what would he offer up as a reason.

"Why did you turn the audio playback off, Special Agent McGee?"

Shifting uncomfortably, regretting letting Ziva browbeat him into doing it, he considered for an instant letting Ziva take the blame since it was because of her that it had happened. But, no, he'd been the senior agent present and that made him responsible. "No excuse, sir."

Gabe raised a skeptical eyebrow, letting McGee know he wasn't satisfied with the answer.

With a deep sigh, cursing at himself, knowing Gibbs was going to go ballistic over this, McGee said, "I turned it off because…because Tony's non-stop talking was getting on my nerves. I needed a short break. Some quiet."

Gabe sat there silent for a while, expressionless, before saying, "Why didn't you leave Agent David in the car to monitor the recordings while you stepped out for a short walk to clear your head?"

McGee said, know it wasn't exactly true, "I didn't think of that." He suspected Gabe didn't buy it.

Gabe remained silent, giving McGee ample time to add to his statement. During this period, McGee's thoughts continued racing. How much trouble was he in? Surely Vance would make sure nothing would happen that seriously impacted his chance for future promotions. Gibbs…Gibbs would kick his and Ziva's butts so hard they'd have trouble sitting for many days. But, that'd be all, right? It wasn't like Tony had been hurt or anything. It was a quiet, gated, safe, no-excitement neighborhood in the middle of the day – bad things weren't supposed to happen in areas like that. Maybe a letter of reprimand and a verbal warning? That would be ok. Give it a few months, and it'll be buried and forgotten. Tony…well, he already knew and didn't seem upset by what had happened.

Gabe interrupted his thoughts and asked, "How long was the audio playback off?"

McGee thought for a split second of telling him that it was only for a few minutes, but he suspected that they already knew differently. "I don't remember exactly how long. I'd estimate….two hours?"

Laying his pen down and folding his hands, Gabe looked at him. "Two hours? You needed two hours to clear your head? Leaving your teammate without a way to call for help if something had gone wrong?"

McGee leaned forward, anxious to make his point, "But nothing went wrong!" McGee raised a hand to emphasize his assertion, but at the look on Jonas' face he paused, then close his mouth with a silent sigh. Don't rock the boat; it'll all blow over quicker then, he thought.

Shaking his head, Gabe said, "Your partner was out alone in a neighborhood in which your team thought a man might be who'd murdered three people and threatened more violence, and you left him without backup for two hours. Which of you thought that the place for the agent providing backup was sitting in the sedan instead of with the agent doing the canvassing? Where was the greater danger?"

McGee sat silent. He had no response to that.

"You are aware of the policies, procedures, and regulations you may have violated, aren't you?" Gabe's voice was cold and sharp.

McGee went white, and swallowed hard. Nothing had happened, he told himself again and again. Surely that would count, right? But, he could feel the anxiety rising as he realized that IA was taking it quite seriously. God, what had he done? He could feel his hands start to tremble as his apprehension rose.

"What was Agent David doing during this time?"

Stammering, McGee said, "Ah…she was…she…we talked about the investigation for a bit. She had some ideas on…additional leads."

Looking at him skeptically, Gabe said, "Who's idea was it initially to turn the playback off?"

McGee knew they probably had reviewed the recordings. He felt awful about it, but he knew he'd be caught out in a lie if he tried to cover for her. He laughed at himself thinking about how much trouble he was already in. "We discussed it before I turned the playback off. She…she was also becoming stressed at…" He couldn't force himself to say more.

Slumping, McGee shook his head. He was so worn out now. All he wanted to do was find a corner to hide in and try and recover from this disaster mentally and emotionally. How could this all go so wrong so fast?

"Special Agent McGee, you are an agent on the premier MCRT of NCIS. Can you explain how someone with your education, training, and experience could even consider doing something like this, much less actually carry it out? Do you think that your personal dislike of your partner could possibly excuse such irresponsible behavior on your part?"

"I don't dislike, Tony. I just…." Realizing that there wasn't much he could say at this point that could justify what he'd done, McGee finished almost inaudibly, "No excuse, sir."

Changing to a new topic Gabe asked, "The officers wrote in their incident report that you had been reading a magazine when they arrived. Do you usually take personal reading material with you on a field assignment?"

Not certain where this was leading, McGee shook his head, "No, not usually. We knew it was going to take a while to cover the entire neighborhood so I grabbed it on my way out to fill the time…" He trailed off as he realized what he had just said. Nothing like admitting he'd planned on slacking off while on duty in front of the boss. Swallowing, he wondered if it could possibly get any worse than it already was. Gibbs was going to head-slap him into the next century. He finally finished up with the now standard, "No excuse."

Glancing through his notes, Gabe found nothing else that needed clarification. Sitting back, he gave McGee a chance to bring up anything he wanted addressed, "Anything you want to add or ask, Special Agent McGee?"

Not able to think clearly or quickly at the moment, McGee shook his head, "No, sir."

Gabe turned to look at the window, indicating he was finished with this interview. He felt sorry for the agent in front of him, but couldn't understand how he could have fumbled so badly.

McGee looked up when the door opened and the director and his boss entered. The look on Vance's face made him nauseous. He'd never seen Vance so angry, and the look of disappointment on Gibbs face was even worse.

Vance addressed him, "You are on administrative leave until this is resolved. Leave your weapon, badge, and ID with Gibbs. You are not to talk to anyone about this investigation. If we need you for further questions, you will be contacted. Until then, your duty station is your residence."

Gibbs crooked a finger at him, and led him back to the bullpen.

Tony rose and met them as they entered. "McGee? Are you ok?" He was alarmed at McGee's appearance. Tim looked sick and exhausted, and wouldn't meet his eyes. Turning to Gibbs, Tony asked, "Boss, what's going on?"

Ignoring him for the moment, Gibbs reached out to accept McGee's weapon, badge, and ID. Gathering up his coat and backpack, McGee left, heading for the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. Tony started to follow him, but Gibbs' sharp, "Stop," caused him to turn back. Others in the office were beginning to take notice of something amiss. Gibbs glared at the onlookers until they turned back to their work.

Locking McGee's gun, badge, and ID in his desk, Gibbs turned to face Tony. "Don't leave. Don't try and contact Ziva or McGee."

As Gibbs turned to leave, Tony stepped in front of him, "Gibbs?"

Pausing, Gibbs looked at him and said in a quiet voice, "Not yet, DiNozzo. Soon." With that, he detoured around Tony and continued towards the back elevator, leaving Tony staring at his back even more worried than before.

Sitting down at his desk, Tony thought for a moment – who might know where Gibbs had been disappearing off to with Ziva and McGee? His face lit up and he picked the phone receiver up and dialed an internal number. "Hey, Hal. You been monitoring the internal security cameras today?"

"Hey, Tony, how's it going? Yeah, I'm stuck on the boredom detail. Still have another week until the sling can come off. Tell the guys down at the baseball field I'll be back in two weeks ready to go, will ya."

Tapping a pencil on the desktop, Tony gave a short laugh. "Will do. Next time, dodge faster." He paused a second then asked, "So, Hal, you see where the boss has been wandering off to the last couple of hours? He keeps disappearing and I can't seem to catch up with him. I may have to track him down at this rate."

Hal was silent for several seconds, then said, "Tony, you in any trouble?"

"Not that I know of. Why?" Knowing Hal could have been monitoring the bull-pen and would know Gibbs had just left, he hoped his friend would not mention it if he had.

In a dead serious voice, Hal said, "Gibbs has been in interrogation room two's observation room….with Director Vance. Agent David, then McGee were in the interrogation room, and both left looking pretty upset."

"Who else was in there with them?"

"They were in there with Gabe Jonas."

Stunned, Tony sat in silence. Internal Affairs?


	6. Chapter 6

Got this tidied up and ready to go, so here's a new chapter for your enjoyment. As usual, you humble me with all the reviews being sent. I feel awful about not being able to reply individually, but I hope I can express my gratitude and appreciation by sending out loads of virtual chocolate rum balls, or for those under the legal age, some delicious aromatic warm virtual chocolate chip cookies.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 6

Abby was angry with Gibbs for pulling her out of her lab without any explanation. Her babies had just finished processing some evidence for Balboa's team and she hadn't had time to do more than pull the printouts off the printer before Gibbs had shown up, sans a new Caf-Pow, to urge her out and into the elevator with only a "you're needed" for an explanation. Something was off and she wanted to stop to figure it out, but Gibbs kept her moving with only an occasional wordless response to her queries.

Stopping in front of the door to interrogation room two, Gibbs finally turned to face her. "Abby, something's come up. You need to go in there," pointing to the door, "and answer some questions. I can't tell you any more than that right now." Opening the door, he gently herded her into the room and closed the door behind her before moving to the observation room and entering.

More baffled now than angry, Abby turned to see Gabriel Jonas. Surprised, she stared. What was going on? Who was in trouble? Tony? She was immediately ashamed of thinking of Tony first. McGee? No, not her little Timmy. Ziva? Ziva…lots of ways she could have gotten into trouble, even if it wasn't her fault. She had too many enemies out there. Gibbs? No. Gibbs would never put up with IA questioning him, or ever let IA interfere with his team. So, if it wasn't anyone on the team then who else?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Gabe held out his hand, "Ms Sciuto, please sit. I'm sure you're wondering why you've been asked to come here."

Sitting down, avoiding his offered hand, she stared at him with wide-opened eyes.

Smiling reassuringly, Gabe said, "I'm hoping you can help us figure out some things that happened a few weeks back on a case Special Agent Gibbs' team worked on."

Abby was off and running, "I…I can try. But, there are lots of things on cases that I don't know anything about. So, if anything happened that I don't know about, I won't be able to tell you anything then. And there are so many cases, and they can sometimes go cold then someone on the team finds something new and then we have to go back through stuff from before the case went cold because I might not remember everything going on back then. And…"

Gabe gently cut her off, "Ms Sciuto, it's ok. Just relax. I'm interested in only one event that happened during that investigation."

Looking uncertain, Abby sat waiting, silent, not happy, chewing on her lower lip.

Looking up from his notes, he sat back, relaxing, hoping she'd respond to his body language and settle down also. "You were the forensic scientist who worked on the case of the bombing at a park by Matt Lane, a member of a domestic terrorist group called Military At Home. Do you recall that case?"

"Well, yeah," Abby said in a 'duh' tone. "Those idiots thought that they were doing a good deed by trying to blow up a bunch of school kids and their families just to prove a point. How they thought that doing that would get anyone to listen seriously to them is so stupid. If anything, it'd probably turn people off and no one would listen to…"

Holding up his hand to interrupt, Gabe smiled, "I agree with you, Ms Sciuto. Not the best thought out idea." Glancing at his notes, he asked, "You received recordings of the residents of the Royal Woods neighborhood to process. The hope was to try and find a voice match among the residents living there to a voice message of a possible suspect. Do you remember that?"

Frowning, Abby nodded, puzzled. Did one of the residents make a complaint?

"We have a copy of the recordings, and of your analysis. You identified an Arthur Haskell as the person who left the voice message. And, in fact, he was one of those involved in the bombing plot. Excellent work, Ms Sciuto."

Abby looked at Gabe with a cautious smile, unsure where this was going. Her work on the recordings was perfect, and it was all carefully documented. There was nothing that was wrong with her work, she was positive. "So, what is wrong with the analysis? It's all there. Everything's documented and all the readings and lab results are included. I don't know how anyone could think there is a problem with any of the data. If anyone has complained, I want to see their evidence that…"

Again, Gabe interrupted gently, "Ms. Sciuto, there is nothing wrong with the analysis of the resident's voices."

Abby leaned forward then, "Then what do you want to know?"

Gabe watched her closely as he said, "Actually, we're interested in other material that was part of the recordings taken that day. Can you tell us about anything about what else was picked up and recorded during that time?"

Cocking her head to one side, Abby frowned, "Anything else? There was nothing else on the recordings apart from what's in the report."

"I'm referring to anyone else other than the residents."

Blinking Abby sat up, "Oh, you mean Tony and McGee and Ziva?"

Gabe nodded. "Can you tell me about that?"

Shrugging, Abby said, "Well, there was the usual header information that Timmy, Special Agent McGee provided at the beginning of the recording. The test to check the recorders, mikes, and receivers were working, and the date, time, where they were, and what they were doing – you know what they were investigating there and why. And Tony had to tell us what house number and street he was going to next, and of course, the questions he was asking the residents. Ziva really didn't have much to say really. Unless there had been trouble, she wouldn't have said much since she was there to provide backup if needed."

Gabe nodded again at her answer, then asked, "What sort of communications occurred between Agent DiNozzo and the two agents in the sedan? Did they talk about the observations Agent DiNozzo was making about the residents or the neighborhood as he moved about? How much did the three agents interact with each other?"

Abby thought hard at his question, wondering what he was getting at. She thought about what she'd heard when doing the processing. Suddenly she knew what Gabe wanted to know about. McGee and Ziva had turned off their mike and audio playback about half way through the assignment. Somehow Tony must have learned about it. Damn him! He must have filed a complaint. Of all the low-life things he could have done! She'd take him apart when she got her hands on him. How dare he do something like that! Angrily, she stood up, "What did he say? Did he complain about them? Is that what this is about? I can't believe he'd do something like that. You listen to me, Mr. IA, nothing bad happened during that time! Nothing! You tell Tony that he's way off base with this. Man, when I get my hands on him..."

Gabe's face had gone expressionless as he listened to her, studying her with interest. Finally, he interrupted sternly. "Ms Sciuto, sit down."

Caught off guard, Abby looked at him, shocked. "You can't talk to me like that. I'm not one of the agents. And I'm not going to tell you anything more to help Tony."

Leaning forward in his chair, Gabe pointed at the chair she'd been sitting in. "Sit down, please. As an employee of NCIS, I can question you in the course of an investigation. And you are required to answer."

Glaring at him, fuming, Abby sat down and crossed her arms.

Pressing the play button on his remote, he once again played the short segment which led up to McGee and Ziva turning the audio playback off. As he hit the stop button, he asked, "You've worked with NCIS for many years, Ms. Sciuto. I'm sure that during that time you've absorbed much in the way of field operations and procedures. You've also have had significant and on-going training on these procedures so you can correctly interpret evidence that you process as part of your work. Is that correct?"

She stared at him, refusing to speak.

Gabe pressed on. "You are aware that all field assignments require the detailing of two or more special agents for their safety. Knowing this, when you heard this part of the recording, why didn't you report what you heard to Special Agent Gibbs or Director Vance?"

Abby struggled for a few seconds to remain silent, but then said acidly, "It was nothing. Nothing happened. Tony talks all the time. I love Tony like a brother, but after all the talking he had to do, I can see how McGee and Ziva would want some silence. It isn't like they hate each other. They didn't do it for spite or to get him hurt. And nothing happened! You can't punish them for that! Tony can be so childish at times. I can't believe he complained about this."

"So, you didn't see a need to report what you heard because you thought it was justified, and no harm came of it."

Abby nodded, "Yes, exactly."

Gabe tapped the end of his pen on the table, processing what the goth-clad woman before him had said. He could understand friendship and loyalty, but was uncertain how to understand the reasoning behind Ms Sciuto's statement. After several seconds, he set that aside to concentrate on another issue.

"The very nature of your work is based in hard science, would you agree with that Ms. Sciuto?"

Abby, still angry, snapped, "Yes. Forensics science is the determination of facts via analysis and observation as applied to physical evidence."

"Accurate analysis is critical, correct? Without it, reasonable doubt occurs. Court cases can be thrown out by a botched analysis. Has this ever happened to you?"

With a barely concealed snort, Abby replied, "No. Never. I take pride in my work being compete and accurate."

Nodding, Gabe asked, "Would you consider your analysis of the recordings of the residents of the Royal Woods neighborhood complete and accurate?"

Flushing, Abby scowled at him, feeling an uneasy twist settle in her middle. She opened her mouth to deny she'd been less than complete, but couldn't bring herself to actually say that out loud. This made her even more angry. Clamping her mouth shut, she hid her clenched fists under the table. The more she thought about what he implied, and knowing she had left out part of the recording because it wasn't relevant to the investigation, and because nothing had happened, and they were just joking, and it wasn't important, the more conflicted she became. She'd damn herself if she said the analysis was accurate and complete. But it wasn't important stuff, and it involved her friends, and…her thoughts circled round and around.

When she didn't reply, he asked in a quiet voice, "How many other investigations have you worked on when the analysis of the evidence was less than complete, Ms. Sciuto?"

He could see her shaking with the effort to refrain from exploding in response. The damage was done already though, by her own admission. It wasn't clear how far the ramifications for this would extend, but at a minimum, a sampling of her previous work would have to be done to determine how much, if any, she'd overlooked or omitted results thinking it wasn't 'important'. He felt sorry for her up to a point since her work was usually stellar and had been key in solving many crimes over the years. Hopefully this was just a one-off event, and could be dealt with internally. Regardless, this particular incident left her in a world of hurt, and he suspected she wasn't going to like the result.

Laying down his pen, Gabe said, "Is there anything else you want to add?"

Nodding so hard her pigtails bounced, Abby leaned forward, "This is bullshit, and you know it. Tony had no right to make a fuss about this. Nothing bad happened. All it's doing is causing trouble for the team. They're not going to forgive him for this." Taking a breath, she finished with, "And you have no right to question my competence or my work!"

Gabe stared at her silently for so long that Abby started to wonder just a little bit if she was missing something. Standing up, she said, "Is there anything else, Mr. I.A., or are we done." She could hardly wait to talk to Gibbs. Someone really needed to talk to Tony about this and make him take it all back before whole investigation thing made Timmie and Ziva look bad. When she finished with Tony, he was going to regret this for a long long time.

The door to the room opened and Vance entered, followed by Gibbs. She was about to launch into a tirade to Gibbs, when she noticed how angry the director looked. Surprised and shocked, she froze.

"Ms. Sciuto, you will return to your lab and gather your belongings. You will wait there until a substitute forensic scientist arrives, then you will brief him or her on whatever you are currently working on."

Abby said, "I just need to write up a report for Balboa's investigation, Director. Gibbs is working on cold cases. And that's good because I want to have a talk with him when we're done here, right Gibbs?"

Vance didn't give Gibbs time to answer, "In that case, you will turn your ID over to the Agent who will be escorting you to your lab and then out of the building. You are on administrative leave, Ms. Sciuto. Your work station until told otherwise is your residence. You will not contact anyone else on your team to discuss this. Do you understand?"

Abby stared at him, surprised beyond words. Mutely, she turned to Gibbs. He was looking at her with just a touch of…sadness? Confused, her attention switched back to the director as he asked again, "Do you understand, Ms. Sciuto? You will not contact anyone else on your team. If you do, there will be consequences. If we have additional questions, you will be contacted."

With that, Vance motioned another agent forward that Abby knew worked for Jonas. She said in a small voice, "Gibbs?"

He tipped his head towards the door, "Go, Abby."

Biting her lip, wanting so bad to run to him for a hug and reassurances that things would be ok, she stood frozen. Finally the agent escorting her touched her arm lightly and said, "Ms. Sciuto?" With that, Abby headed towards the door, unresisting, confused.

Gibbs looked like he'd aged a decade. Vance asked sympathetically, "You want to take a break, Gibbs?" He knew this was eating at Gibbs, and Abby's interview was probably the worst so far for the man.

Shaking his head, Gibbs answered, "No. Let's get this over with." He turned and headed off to find DiNozzo. One last interview to get through, then he could get to work fixing this damn mess….

A/N: Haven't mentioned it yet in this story, but the next chapter won't be out for a few days since weekends are taken up with cat-rescue-related work. In response to a PM, I'm sorry I can't post more frequently, but if it comes down to taking care of the cats vs writing in competing for my time, writing loses.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry this is late. Too many things to do and not enough time. I've baked up some wonderful virtual crunchy topped chocolate coffee cake for all who've reviewed - I'm grateful for all the enthusiastic feedback! And an extra piece of cake goes to Acrwdof1 who's been a fountain of information on the ins and outs of law enforcement minutiae. As usual, all booboos are mine.

Chapter 7

Lost in thought, Tony didn't notice Gibbs approaching until he moved into his line of sight. Gibbs said nothing, just studied him. Standing, Tony held a fresh hot cup of coffee out to him, "Internal Affairs?"

Not surprised that Tony had managed to dig up some information in the short time since he'd left, he nodded. Crooking a beckoning finger at him, Gibbs turned and headed back to the interrogation room. Stopping in front of the door for the fourth time that day, Gibbs said quietly, "We'll talk when you're done."

Tony's eyes narrowed as he eyed his boss. Gibbs tipped his head towards the door, and moved on to enter the observation room. Frowning, Tony opened the door and entered, ready to confront whatever was waiting in the room. As Gabe looked up, Tony nodded a greeting and sat down across from him.

"Gabe? What's going on?" Tony glanced at the papers on the table.

While not friends, Tony and Gabe had crossed paths occasionally in the building and had gone out for coffee and sports talk a few times. Both played varsity sports in college, though Gabe was into swimming and baseball while Tony played basketball and football.

In the observation room, Vance glanced at Gibbs, "Is there anyone in this building that DiNozzo doesn't know?"

Gibbs gave him a sidelong look, one corner of his mouth crooked up in a half-smile.

Gabe put his pen down. "Commander Daniels. You remember the case?"

Tony frowned, "Yeah. Happened several weeks ago. Group of residents in a posh neighborhood wanted to bring their hard earned tax dollars back home to make things safer here rather than spend it overseas. Cases are grinding through the system slowly."

Gabe nodded. "The assignment to collect the voice samples from the neighborhood residents at Royal Woods - anything out of the ordinary happen?"

Thinking back, Tony couldn't recall anything. "No, not really. We went in, canvassed the neighborhood collecting the recordings, turned them over to Abby. In and out. Why?"

Gabe considered him for a moment longer, then slid the police report over to him. Taking it, Tony skimmed through it. Going back to the front page he reread the penciled comment. Wincing inside, he closed his eyes for a moment and with a deep breath, he handed the report back to Gabe. So, they really had done it. He had hoped and wanted to believe they were just getting him back for all the pranks. He'd carefully not done any checking afterwards because he didn't want to find out if it really happened. Guess that hadn't been one of his smarter decisions.

"I take it this is about the playback being turned off." It was a statement, not a question. Tony looked resigned, and suddenly very tired. Under his breath he added, "I was hoping they were just joking around."

Gabe blinked and sat forward. "Joking around?" He hoped he had mistaken what Tony had just said.

"Yeah." His brows drawn together slightly, Tony wondered how IA had gotten their hands on a copy of the report. "Gabe, when did this report come in? It hadn't reached us by the time we closed the case. Wasn't sure if we'd even get a copy. How'd the report end up with you guys?"

"It was received shortly after the incident took place – got held up in the mail room during a staff shortage. Recently, someone in the building anonymously forwarded a copy to us." Leaning forward, concerned, Gabe asked, "What happened, Tony?"

Dammit, Tony thought, this is playing right into Vance's hands. He knew the Director would blame him somehow for this. And, he admitted to himself, maybe Vance would be right. He'd pulled enough pranks that he expected a fair share back. But…this hadn't been a prank. His partners had left him without backup. Nothing good was going to come out of this investigation. Once again, he thought bitterly, he found himself the recipient of behavior that bordered on insubordination, and in this case, dangerously negligent. Sighing, he thought, '_suck it up, DiNozzo'. _

Putting on a chagrined smile, he shrugged and said, "Hey, it was all in fun. No harm. I thought they were pulling my leg. When I got back to the sedan, I made some comment about them enjoying themselves listening to me having to do all that work. They said they'd turned the playback off and hadn't been listening. But you know, considering how boring it was – after all, there are only so many questions you can ask about a neighborhood before you start repeating yourself - who can blame them? I thought they were just…." He stared at the tabletop, and said in a very quiet voice, "They said they got tired of listening to me."

Drawing in a breath, pasting on a caricature of a happy smile, Tony straightened up, "Well, it's all water under the bridge. Nothing happened. No harm, no foul. I'm sure Gibbs will find something that needs spit and polish cleaning after a swift kick in the arse - well, you know how he gets his point across."

"You didn't include that in your report."

With a crooked smile, Tony replied, "Would you have included it? It was a joke. I thought it had been a prank. That'd look real good in a case report, you know."

"Were you even the slightest bit suspicious that maybe it wasn't a prank?"

After a pause that lasted just a fraction too long while he worked to bring his emotions under control enough to speak evenly, he said brightly, "No! Not at all." As the realization about what had really happened finally registered with him, a rising feeling of disbelief took root in his gut as what the two of them had done sank in. Behind that disbelief were dual threads of betrayal and anger tangling together. Absently, he rubbed the center of his chest where it felt like a knife had been embedded. He had no idea how pale he'd gotten or how bleak his expression had become.

Gabe waited, silently sympathizing with the man cross the table from him. It wasn't the first time he'd witnessed this sort of reaction in someone he'd interviewed during his IA career. And he knew that this was going to leave a deep scar on the agent in front of him as he struggled to cope with what his partners had done. If Vance or Gibbs mishandled this, they'd end up with a broken agent unable to work for NCIS - maybe unable to work with any law enforcement agency if Tony couldn't bring himself to trust his partners.

Finally becoming aware of the silence that had fallen, Tony took a deep breath and shoved his feelings down into a deep box and slammed the lid shut. He couldn't afford to let those feelings loose – not right now. He pulled his persona of a light-hearted affable colleague tighter around himself, and held on stiffly.

With a silent sigh, Gabe pressed on. "I don't have to tell you how serious this is, Tony. By not reporting it, you've raised the possibility of Gibbs and the Director not trusting your judgment out in the field. This should have been addressed immediately after it happened. It raises red flags all the way up the line about the cohesiveness of the team, and the awareness of the team leader as to its operational readiness. How can Vance trust him to do his job when things like this come up?"

Tony's head snapped up, "If anyone should be blamed for this, it's me. I'm the one responsible for not following up and dealing with it. It's my responsibility to address these problems before it gets to Gibbs. I'm the one who failed. You leave him out of this."

"Gibbs is the team leader. Ultimately it's his responsibility. Right now, you're a part of the problem, not the solution. While your partners started this, you didn't help it any by ignoring it, by not reporting it."

Leaning forward, hands clenched into hard fists, Tony said in an icy voice, "I guess it's a matter of interpretation. You see it as – what - a cover up? I see it as doing what needs to be done to keep the team together and get the work done. That's _my_ job. And until Gibbs tells me I'm screwing it up, I'll continue to believe I meet his standards."

Gabe considered what Tony had said. Finally deciding to take a slightly different approach, he said, "You're a good Senior Field Agent, Special Agent DiNozzo. If you weren't, Gibbs would have sacked you long ago. But, I think you've experienced more problems like this than you might want to admit, maybe even to yourself, and in spite of your efforts the problems still persist. And I think the reason that you _can't_ fix these problems is because your partners don't respect you. And, if Gibbs hasn't seen fit to correct this belief, he must think that it's acceptable - which puts you in a very uncomfortable position."

Not one to look elsewhere for someone or something to blame when things went sideways, Tony stated, "If they don't respect me, it's because I haven't earned it. It's no one else's fault. Don't put this on Gibbs' head. If I've screwed up, he'll let me know."

Gabe pushed his chair back and relaxed his body language, hoping to give Tony some breathing room. "Why do you think it's so hard for you to earn their respect?"

Distracted, Tony said without thinking, "Because I'm just a cop."

Thoughtfully, Gabe said, "Just a cop." He let that statement sit for a while before adding, "Since NCIS is a law enforcement agency, 'just a cop' sounds about as close to what the job calls for than much else I can think of."

Tony shrugged, "Well, that might have been true years ago, but times have changed, and if you don't have something extra to bring to the table now you can find yourself dragging investigations down. I'm sure you're aware of the Director's efforts to drag this agency into the modern world kicking and screaming the whole way."

With a low laugh, Gabe observed, "The Director is putting his stamp on the agency, and certainly does value technical skills and specialists. But isn't it interesting that employers don't always look for fancy skills or degrees, but for people who have a knack for thinking creatively, for finding patterns and connections where others don't, who look at things differently. They look high and low and everywhere between for those people who are, in your own words, 'wildcards, who don't accept the reality in front of them'."

Tony stared at him, surprised into speechlessness. How did Gabe know about what he'd said long ago during an interrogation in a stifling hot room in the middle of a desert in Somalia? He knew the support team, including Gibbs, had been wired into a parabolic listening system to monitor the situation, but he had thought the details had been classified and weren't common knowledge.

Gabe continued, trying to give the man in front of him a way to see that he already had earned the respect of those who mattered. "It wasn't the Marine sniper, the SEAL team in the wings, the Navy brass, the computer expert, the brilliant scientist, or the deadly Mossad assassin who was in the hot seat, Very Special Agent DiNozzo. It was the wildcard. "

Finally getting his mind out of the stunned mode where it'd stalled out, Tony looked at the man across the table from him and said, "And without all the others, that wildcard would have never made it to that room, or back again."

Nodding, Gabe said, "Yup. And you just proved once again that teamwork is what makes things happen around here. Not just a Marine, a computer genius, or a deadly spy. There's a big place in the team that 'just a cop' fills." He tidied up the papers in front of him, "Take out any one of them, and the team suffers. This is something your two partners haven't figured out yet, it seems."

Pursing his lips thoughtfully, Gabe decided it wouldn't hurt to give the Director another wake-up call. "The job offers you receive from agencies ranging from local to international – they're looking for the 'wildcard who sees what others don't'."

Before Tony could react to his observation, Gabe reached over and started the playback of the recording he'd played now for Ziva and McGee, scrutinizing Tony as he listened, watching him shut down leaving an unreadable frozen expression behind.

As the playback finished, Gabe leaned back and asked gently, "Anything you want to add?"

A small, restrained "No," slipped out from Tony.

Changing subjects, Gabe asked, "How were the duties of the assignment decided?"

Uncharacteristically, it took Tony a moment to play catch-up with the change in topic before he said, "McGee was obviously the one to handle the technical stuff – recording equipment and such. Given my gift of gab," Tony almost gagged on the words, "I was the obvious choice for the canvassing. That left Ziva there for backup. Don't think we even talked about it."

"Given the size of the area to cover, wouldn't it have made a more sense to divide the canvassing between the three of you? After all, by the time you'd finished, you ended up with laryngitis."

Shrugging again, Tony said, "The job got done. That's the important thing."

"Have you ever brought anything with you to keep yourself entertained if you knew you'd be handling the recording or providing backup in a similar situation?"

"Keep myself entertained?" Tony snorted, hiding the derision he imagined they'd felt. "I'm sure my team would tell you that I don't need anything to keep me entertained except my big mouth. Besides, I'd be working."

"Police report mentioned that McGee brought a magazine with him; Ziva a novel. They were so engrossed in reading, they didn't notice the officers approach the sedan. Sounds like they had planned ahead of time to keep themselves occupied while you were out working the neighborhood."

Tony rolled his eyes, "C'mon, Gabe. You can't read anything into them having that stuff with them."

Raising an eyebrow, Gabe waited.

"Gabe, you know….it wasn't…." Tony had to work hard at keeping the bitterness out of his voice. He hadn't really thought about the fact that they had taken something with them to fill the time while he was out working the residents. Had they planned on turning the playback off before they had even left the building?

With a silent sigh, knowing that another seed of distrust of his partners had taken root in the man opposite him, Gabe asked, "Anything more you want to say, any questions…"

"No." Tony couldn't wait to get out of that room. He needed some time alone to get himself under control.

With a sympathetic smile, Gabe said. "Thanks for your help, Tony." He rose and held out his hand for a quick handshake.

As Tony reached the door, Vance and Gibbs entered. Bracing himself, knowing now why Ziva and McGee had looked as they did after their interviews, he waited for the axe to fall.

Vance was rigid and stone-faced as he faced DiNozzo. Tony wouldn't look at Gibbs, fearing to see the disapproval and blame for this fiasco he knew was there.

"Go home, Special Agent DiNozzo. We'll call and let you know what will happen next. You are not to talk to others on your team about this. Do you understand?"

Expressionless, Tony nodded, "Yes, sir," and left the room, heading to the bullpen as fast as he could.

Grabbing his coat and backpack, he pulled out his Sig, badge, and ID and turned to put them on Gibbs' desk, only to almost run into his boss who was standing behind him. Damn. He'd forgotten how silently Gibbs could move. He held out his weapon, badge, and ID, waiting for Gibbs to take them.

Raising an eyebrow, refusing to reach for them, Gibbs said, "I don't recall the director saying you're on admin leave, DiNozzo."

"But…he said to leave."

"Good idea. Get home, ditch the suit, grab the beer and be at my place at 1700."

"Boss, Vance said to not talk…"

Gibbs just stared at him, expressionless.

After a long pause in which Tony searched Gibbs' face for any hint of what he was thinking without success, he nodded and headed for the elevator silently. He could feel a headache starting.

Gibbs watched until the elevator doors closed, then headed off to autopsy. Time for some insight into why two of his agents had pulled such an inexcusable and stupid stunt. And why another let them get away with it.


	8. Chapter 8

New chapter ready for your reading pleasure. And for all you marvelous readers out there who take the time from your busy schedule to let me know how much you're enjoying this story, I have a freshly made batch of rich silky fudge with nuts. And no paw prints this time around. Really! Enjoy your virtual treats! As usual, any booboos made are my fault.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 8

Striding into autopsy with his usual brusqueness, Gibbs found Ducky deep in a medical journal. He stopped and just stood there for several seconds, looking uncertain.

Eyeing him with curiosity, Ducky put his journal aside and rose, "Jethro? Is something wrong?" There was no case currently, but something had his friend on edge.

Looking around, Gibbs asked, "Palmer?"

"Out. He's studying for an exam. Won't be back until tomorrow."

Gibbs relaxed a little at that, and leaned against the closest autopsy table. Rubbing his hands over his face, he looked at Ducky for several seconds before he could speak. "Got a problem. Need some advice."

Without a word, Ducky pulled out his "medicinal" supply of whiskey and poured himself and Gibbs a short finger. Handing it to Gibbs, he settled down to listen, certain that whatever happened had been messy considering how unsettled it had Gibbs.

"The Commander Daniels case – Military At Home, bomb at a park. Remember it?"

Nodding, Ducky said, "Indeed. A nasty piece of shallow thinking by a group short on brains and long on group thinking of the worst order."

"DiNozzo was out collecting those voice samples in Royal Woods while McGee and Ziva were back in the car supposedly monitoring him."

Ducky's eyebrows rose, "Supposedly? Why do you say that, Jethro?"

Tossing back his whiskey in a single gulp, Gibbs set the glass down so he wouldn't end up with a fistful of broken glass if he lost his temper. "Metro sent a patrol out to check on them after a neighbor called concerned about two people sitting in a parked car for so long. Cops found McGee and Ziva in the car reading, with the playback turned off. It'd been off for close to two hours. Cops sent a courtesy copy of the incident report, and one of them had written a comment on the front page wanting to know how the two of them could have been providing backup for DiNozzo with the playback off. Somehow it'd ended up in IA's hands. They're investigating."

Ducky looked aghast, "What do Timothy and Ziva have to say about it? I can't believe they'd do such a thing. Why would they?"

Looking furious, Gibbs said curtly, "Jonas just finished interviewing them both. Ziva refuses to admit what happened. McGee owned up to it up front, seemed upset and ashamed of what they'd done."

"But, why Jethro? Why would they do such a thing?"

"Just before they turned the playback off, Ziva had been hassling McGee about shutting Tony up – listening to him was driving her nuts, she said. McGee caved after a token resistance."

"How did Ms David expect Anthony to accomplish his task without speaking? That's….I don't know what to say, Jethro. And I must admit disappointment about Timothy not standing up for proper procedures in such a potentially dangerous situation. What if that killer had been in residence at the time Anthony was canvassing? It's inexcusable!"

Taking a deep breath, Gibbs reined his temper in. "There's more. Abby heard the two of them on the recording talking about it before McGee turned their mike and playback off. She didn't say a thing at the time. Blew up at Jonas. She thought Tony had filed a complaint against McGee and Ziva. Said Tony must have driven them into it with his non-stop talking, and since nothing happened, he had no basis for complaining."

Ducky scowled, "That young lady should know better. She does know better. Her emotions influence her beyond justification at times, Jethro. I hope you were able to correct her misapprehensions. If she carries forth her attitude and accusations to Anthony directly, it could very well cause a schism between them that may not be correctable." The Medical Examiner shook his head in disappointment, and said quietly to himself, "I may need to pay Abigail a visit myself Jethro to encourage her to think before she gets herself into more trouble than she can handle."

He rose and poured Gibbs more whiskey. "And Anthony? You said he didn't know?"

"He does now, Duck. Jonas interviewed him last. He said they'd told him after he returned to the car that they'd turned the playback off and hadn't been listening to him because they got tired of listening to him. He thought they were joking around. Duck, this is hitting him hard. He was barely hanging together when he left."

Shaking his head sadly, Ducky said, "I suspect he wondered at the time if they, in fact, weren't joking. He must be feeling betrayed. Add Abigail into the mix and I'd be very worried about him. You know he tends to do whatever he thinks is required to keep the team together and functioning well. I do hope that doesn't mean he'll attempt to own the blame for this event, though I suspect he might, especially if the consequences for Timothy and Ziva's actions are severe."

Eyeing Gibbs thoughtfully, he asked, "And you, Jethro? Do you blame him?"

Surprised, Gibbs gawked at the M.E. "What?"

"I rather suspect that Anthony will be wondering how you view what happened. No doubt he will think that while you may conclude that what your two junior agents did was reprehensible and undoubtedly inexcusable, there will be a part of him that will suspect that you, in some small way, will also believe that he surely must have driven Timothy and Ziva to such extremes. Any hint that you believe such will immeasurably add to his feeling of guilt and responsibility for what is happening now."

"Duck, both of them have worked with DiNozzo for years now. They all dish out their own crap at times, and know how to set it aside and work with each other in the field and in the office. Hell, _I'd _be the last one to point the finger of blame at him considering my own actions at times."

Ducky gave a low laugh at his words. "Indeed, Jethro. If they can work with you, Anthony should be a breeze."

Gibbs eyes narrowed as he thought back to something Gabe had said, "Jonas told DiNozzo that he suspected this wasn't the first time that McGee and David had given him grief, and reason he hadn't been able to fix it was because they didn't respect him and I let them get away with it." He turned to look at Ducky, his expression perplexed.

With a half-shrug, Ducky replied, "Well, I think it's a bit more complicated than that, Jethro. Anyone dealing with human relations and interactions knows it can be a challenge to understand the complex motivations and developments behind them. Often discrete causes are difficult to discern when analyzing what drives behavior. But, I need not lecture you – you are well aware of this."

"They're responsible adults, Duck. The idea that they have problems understanding and following basic procedures…."

"I'm sure you can appreciate how some things can cause even the most stable of individuals to lose their perspective, and react to intense emotional stress in ways that are substantially out of proportion, and at times unreasonable. I seem to recall an agent who became obsessed, almost to the point of irrationality, with catching a terrorist who'd hurt those close to him." He raised an eyebrow knowingly at Gibbs.

After a few seconds, Gibbs figured out what Ducky was alluding to, and scowled. "Ari was a terrorist who needed to be taken out - the sooner the better."

With pursed lips, Ducky simply looked at Gibbs, waiting. Eventually, Gibbs turned away, refusing to admit that Ducky might be right.

"As far as Timothy and Ziva not respecting Anthony, I'm afraid I must agree with Special Agent Jonas. There have been times when the behavior of those two skirts the edge of insubordination. But Anthony is far too experienced and professional to let it disrupt getting the job done.

"Jethro, I know you view him as fully capable of dealing with those two, and trust him to do so without your oversight. And I believe Anthony, for the most part, also views your lack of interference as confidence in his abilities. However, I do wonder at times whether his two teammates might view your lack of involvement as a tacit approval of their actions, rather than understanding its actual meaning."

He could see dawning understanding in his friend's expression. Gibbs nodded ever so slightly, "Perhaps it's time for a reminder that there is a chain of command for a reason." After a pause, he continued, "And maybe it's time for another lesson they're having a hard time learning."

At this, Ducky raised inquiring eyebrows.

"Tony pins the lack of respect on being 'only a cop'."

Ducky crossed his arms, a look of disgust on his face. "Some agents who haven't having the experience of being 'just a cop' might find their understanding of what that brings to an investigation a bit short-sighted."

Gibbs smirked in agreement.

Thoughtfully, Ducky asked, "What do you see happening with all of this Jethro? How does Vance feel about it, especially given his aspirations for McGee?"

Gibbs responded, "Vance is not happy about any of this. IA still has to issue their report and recommendations. Don't know yet if he wants to run it by Justice or SecNav. After that, we'll see what he has in mind."

"And you?"

"Those two are going to get their butts kicked so hard they won't be able to sit down for weeks."

Seeing there was more bothering his friend, Ducky waited patiently until Gibbs worked things out.

"I don't know if I can trust McGee or Ziva out in the field after this." Gibbs stood looking uncharacteristically unsure.

Rising, Ducky stood before him, "Jethro, you need to talk to them."

Meeting Ducky's eyes, Gibbs nodded slowly, "Already on the list." Turning he headed out the door, "Thanks, Duck." First things first, though. DiNozzo needed a good head-slap out of his funk, and he needed to explain why he let this slide in the first place. Then he'd tackle the others and find out what in the hell happened.

-000-

Tony found himself standing in front of the long stone wall, looking down at Caitlin Todd's engraved name, overwhelmed with a feeling of longing strong enough to make him blink tears from his eyes. He'd found himself at The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial without having remembered driving here.

As he traced her name with his finger, he wandered through memories - Kate at crime scenes leaning forward to take photos; at her desk with the phone wedged between her ear and shoulder, deep in a conversation; in the elevator standing next to him with her backpack slung over her shoulder, twirling the truck keys around on her finger; driving each other crazy at times trading barbed comments; laughing while lobbing carrots and popcorn at each other across the bullpen late at night; standing next to each other while looking towards Pacci's desk in shock when hearing he'd been murdered; standing in front of Ducky frustrated with each other as they argued in exasperation over the fate of half a sandwich; crouching next to him, gun drawn, covering his back; standing next to his bed refusing to leave as he gasped for breath under blue lights…

It was that last memory that left him missing her most of all, feeling anger at how unfair it was that she was gone. He thought of Ziva, compared her to Kate, and missed Kate all the more for it. As hard as he might, he couldn't imagine Kate ever doing what Ziva and McGee had done. If he were honest, he had a hard time imagining McGee could do such a thing either. If Kate were still here, she'd have scorched McGee with a tongue lashing that would make Gibbs' look mild, then kicked his arse from one end of the gym to the other to reinforce her message.

He stood for a few minutes more, lost in thought, before sighing quietly to himself and leaving. He had a conversation with Gibbs that he needed to get through still that night.


	9. Chapter 9

Not quite happy with this chapter, but here it is. Hope it isn't a disappointment. I'm still regarding the vast number of reviews that have come in with astonished amazement. I wanted to post this yesterday, but a couple of the "furkids" decided I should spend my time at the vet's office sending the doc's family on another world cruise instead. So it's their fault that I only had time to whip up a batch of virtually delicious chocolate dipped (ok, smothered) shortbread cookies to send out in thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 9

Tony pushed the front door to Gibbs' house open and walked in, a six-pack of beer in hand. Tossing his jacket over the back of the couch, he made his way into the kitchen where Gibbs was pulling salad makings out of the refrigerator. "Ducky's been after me again," he said when Tony raised an eyebrow. "See what you can do with this stuff while I put the steaks on."

Quickly tossing together a simple salad, he took it along with two cold beers to the dining room table. Gibbs joined him shortly with two piping-hot steaks. Neither spoke until the meal was almost finished. Draining the last of his beer, Gibbs rose and pulled two more bottles out of the refrigerator, and returned to the table.

"Did you suspect that they might have been serious?"

Tony pushed the last of the salad around on his plate, "No…yes…I dunno. It was impossible to think they'd have left me with no backup. I just couldn't believe…" He picked at the label on the beer bottle before finishing it off and popping the cap off the second.

Holding it high in a mock salute, he said in a bright, light tone with just a sliver of bitterness, "But, hey, let's face it, boss. After hours of listening to my yacking you'd probably have given me the head-slap of the century to shut me up."

Looking at Tony, Gibbs gave him one of his half-smiles, "Probably." Standing, he started to clear the table. "Wash, I'll dry."

After the kitchen was squared away, the two men headed to the living room. Pointing to the couch, Gibbs sat on the coffee table across from him. Taking a sip of his beer, Gibbs studied his SFA, noting his subdued and muted demeanor. Yup, he'd need to administer a good swift kick in the pants before the night was over to jolt him out of his funk. He asked, "Why'd you think they did it?"

Sitting up with a bright smile lighting up his face, Tony scoffed, "C'mon, boss. House after house, same questions, same answers, deadly dull after the first few, add in non-stop commentary on every movie reference I could think of to liven things up, and shake well. It was inevitable they'd eventually crack."

With a smirk, Gibbs snorted softly, "Yeah, you're right. After a while, listening to that would drive even a saint mad - no surprise. You can drive anyone crazy quicker than anyone I know. And now it's all come out in the wash….all because you just couldn't keep things focused and professional."

As hard as Tony tried to hang onto his façade of 'business as usual', he couldn't stop a hitch in his breathing as Gibbs' words struck home. He knew it - Gibbs did blame him for this entire mess. He swallowed, feeling like the dinner he'd just eaten might come back up, his gut clenched with surprise and shock at his boss's words. He'd hoped that Gibbs would have given him at least a little understanding and support before kicking him to the curb, but it looked like that hope was in vain. "Sorry, boss…"

The head-slap caught him by surprise. Gibbs held a finger up before his eyes and, "Right. It's your fault that two highly-trained, disciplined, responsible, experienced, armed federal investigators couldn't find it in themselves to do their job rather than screw around whining because they didn't like listening to their partner who was out doing the dirty work while they sat around on their asses." Gibbs was shouting by the end. Taking a deep breath, he surprised Tony by continuing in a soft intense voice, "I don't ever want to hear anything so idiotic from you ever again. I'll head-slap you so hard you'll drown in the middle of the Atlantic."

Stunned, Tony just stared at him wide-eyed, open mouthed, feeling more than a little stupid.

Chucking him under the chin, Gibbs said, "Don't make me repeat it, DiNozzo." Moving over to sit next to Tony on the couch, he put his feet up on the coffee table and asked quietly, "This the first time they've done something like this?"

Still unsettled, Tony had to think for a few seconds, "I think so….I don't know. There's a lot of back and forth bantering, but…" The more Tony thought about it, the more unsure he became of his own judgment when it came to his co-workers.

"Insubordination?"

Tony shrugged, "You know how the team works, boss. When push comes to shove, we have each other's…." He trailed off when he realized where he was going with that statement.

Gibbs took another long swallow of beer before asking Tony again, "Why did they do it?"

Tony thought through several possibilities. Finally, with no sign of the adept and adroit flare he frequently used when giving updates, he slowly said, "They are good agents, responsible, diligent, hard-working. But something about this assignment – they didn't stay in work mode."

Gibbs said thoughtfully, "Go on."

"They either didn't think there was enough of a credible danger to justify the effort, or they didn't believe the consequences of what might happen were serious enough to worry about, or maybe both.

"If they felt there wasn't a credible danger, their analysis was off, and they didn't double-check their assumptions. Considering the man we were looking for may have killed three people already, it's hard to understand how they could think the possible threat wasn't real. Considering their experience and training, it's difficult to believe."

Gibbs nodded slowly. "What else."

"They thought the possible consequences of no backup were acceptable." Tony paused then to take a deep breath in an effort to relax and let the tension that ran through him dissipate. His voice was low and tightly controlled, "Which implies that the risk of injury to or death of who they should have been protecting was acceptable." He didn't realize it, but Gibbs had seen the expression on his face before – when Tony had confronted his old Baltimore partner after he discovered Danny was a dirty cop: betrayal, hurt, confusion, and a deep burning anger. Gibbs remembered what Tony's reaction had been to that situation, and he had no intensions of allowing that to happen again.

Knowing what Vance must have thought about what brought this about, Tony decided to bring it up rather than ignore the big 'white elephant' in the midst of this FUBAR mess. "Boss, I know and you know how Vance must feel about how this happened. No point in ignoring it. What the others did wasn't kosher, but I'm a part of the cause. My behavior on the job is less than professional. I know better, and should have straightened up my act long ago. It's as much my fault that this happened. I'm surprised something like this hasn't happened before, and not just with McGee and Ziva. I think that it should be taken into consideration when dealing with this mess."

Gibbs studied him for a long time, face impassive. Tony forced himself to remain still and not fidget under the stare. The longer the silence went on, the more nervous he got, but he maintained eye contact with his boss, and refused to look away. Finally, one corner of Gibbs' mouth curled up into his trademark smile. "Yeah, you drive everyone crazy at times, but it's part of who you are. And it's part of what makes you one of the best agents I've worked with. Rule five."

Blinking, Tony tried to comprehend what Gibbs had just said. "What?"

"The second 'B' is for bastard. Do you think I'd change how I do things because other people think it's unprofessional? It gets results. You get results." Gibbs smirked, "You think that if McGee or David failed to back me up because they don't like how I do things that I'd find it acceptable?"

Tony shook his head, "Well, no, but…" He saw the head-slap coming this time, and winced as it connected.

"When and if I ever find a problem with your behavior, you'll know it. There is _no_ excuse for what the two of them did out there that day. None." His tone made it clear that the matter was closed and not open for further discussion. Not wanting to earn another head-slap, Tony snapped his mouth shut.

Collecting the beer bottles, Gibbs took them out to the kitchen and returned with cups of coffee and a napkin of cookies which he laid out on the coffee table. By then, Tony had managed to absorb what Gibbs had said, and some of the knots inside his gut had loosened. Grabbing a cookie, he bit into it and a look of delight spread across this face, "These are good, boss."

"Neighbor across the street brought them over."

"Is she married?" Tony asked with a humorous glance at his boss.

"She's in grade school, DiNozzo."

"Oh. Well, she can open her own bakery when she grows up and make a fortune on the recipe for these cookies then." He stuffed another one into his mouth and savored the flavors as he chewed slowly.

"Why'd you avoid following up when they told you they'd turned the playback off?"

Swallowing down the last of the suddenly tasteless cookie, Tony tried to think of an acceptable answer. He finally decided to go with the truth, since he suspected Gibbs already knew the answer. "I didn't want to find out it was true." He took a sip of coffee, and leaned back, suddenly worn out, "It was easier…safer not to…" Rubbing at his eyes, he finished, "I should have followed up."

"How many times have you let them get away with insubordination or disrespect because you took the easy way out?"

Tony scowled, "There's a time and place to let some things go, boss. You know that. Pick your battles. And for the most part, I think I've done a reasonable job."

"And those times when you didn't?"

Studying his hands, Tony finally said, "It didn't happen often." With a sigh, he added, "I could have done better. I should have done better."

"Yeah, and why didn't you?"

Tony was silent for a long time, trying to figure out how to not say what he was thinking. How could he admit he was afraid to find his team thought he wasn't capable or worthy? He'd been a cop and agent for years now, and wasn't a rookie wanting or needing to impress anyone. But, ever so often something would sneak up and rattle his confidence. It must happen to everyone at times, right? _Man up, DiNozzo. Just say it._ Eventually, he swallowed, and spoke, "Because I didn't think they'd listen."

"You didn't think they'd obey."

Tony nodded. "Yeah. And I wasn't sure…"

"That I'd back you up."

Looking up at Gibbs, Tony said, "If they didn't respect the chain of command, respect _me_, then…"

"If I didn't back you up, it'd be because I agreed with them."

Having finally reached the dead center of one of his worst fears, Tony paused. Finally he forced himself to speak. In a near whisper, Tony said, "Yeah." He waited in a limbo of uncertainty and sick anticipation for his boss's response.

Gibbs sat silent for a moment, thinking about Ducky's observation that his lack of visible support for Tony may have given the impression that he agreed with their actions. The environment at the agency wasn't quite the same as in the Marines. Respect and obedience to a higher rank was more clear-cut and ingrained in the military culture. While Gibbs tried to carry that over into his job at NCIS, it wasn't always a smooth blend with a non-military work environment. And, he realized, his lack of awareness about this had led him to a poor response in addressing it.

Tony mistook his silence and said, "I'll do better, boss. I know I should have followed up, and I failed. And it's led to this mess. I accept responsibility for it. Whatever you and Vance agree should be done…"

He watched as Gibbs head-slapped himself. His jaw dropped and he stared wide-eyed at the other man in utter astonishment and bewilderment. What had just happened?


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry this chapter is so short. Time's been limited this week, and I wasn't able to get as much written as I'd wanted. I promise the next chapter will be longer to make up for it. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a review! Didn't have much time to bake something fancy for all you reviewers, so I'm sending out big quantities of virtual Oreo cookies instead. Grab some cold milk and dip away! McGee gets "chomped out" in this chapter, but in the end, he'll redeem himself so not all is lost. Enjoy. As usual, any booboos are my bad.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 10

Driving along slower than his usual mad speed, Gibbs thought about the conversation he had just finished with Tony as he headed towards his first destination of the evening. The more he'd tried to convince DiNozzo that what had happened wasn't his fault, the more Tony withdrew, shutting down. The surprise and shock of witnessing Gibbs head-slap himself wore off quickly. Tony apologized for making things difficult between his boss and Vance, and while what McGee and David had done had been unexpected, he still felt there had to be something he overlooked that could have kept things from going so badly sideways.

When asked, Gibbs had given a thumbnail sketch of what McGee and David had disclosed during their interview, though he kept most of Abby's interview to himself. Until he had time to talk with her, he didn't want the two of them to meet.

The years of dealing with hostile criminals, a job full of pain and suffering by its very nature, and colleagues who swung from silently supportive to snidely unfriendly at times – all this had given Tony a thick skin and let much that came his way slide over him without much effect. This wasn't going to be one of those instances though. Behind all of his talk, Gibbs could see DiNozzo was shaken badly by what had happened. He was worried more than he wanted to admit that Tony would move on as he had after finding Danny Price was dirty. He'd quit himself before he'd let that happen.

-000-

Nerves shot from stress, McGee bolted upright at the pounding on his door. He'd been sitting in front of his typewriter for hours, unable to compose so much as a single sentence. His gut had been churning non-stop since he'd arrived home, and he'd gone through an entire roll of antacids, a bottle of the pink stuff, and every folk-remedy he could find on the internet that he had the ingredients for in an effort to calm his stomach. Knowing who was at the door, he wondered if he could even answer it without tossing his cookies. Finally, he opened it before a neighbor called the cops at the racket.

Without a word, Gibbs entered, pushing McGee back into the room and slammed the door shut. He kept backing McGee up until he fell back onto his couch. Pulling over a chair, Gibbs sat himself down in front of McGee and eyeing him with a stone-cold expression said, "Explain."

Swallowing, feeling faint, McGee knew that this was it. If he wasn't able to satisfy Gibbs, he knew he'd be off the team. It was time to fess up or walk away. Trying to sit up a little straighter, he struggled to organize his thoughts which were scattered hopelessly, racing around faster than he could corral them. He forced himself to meet Gibbs' eyes.

"I screwed up. I let my emotions override my judgment. I let a team member down in one of the worst ways possible. I disregarded my training and procedures. I failed in my duty to the agency and to a fellow agent. I let myself be swayed by another who was pushing me to do something I knew was wrong rather than standing firm. I have no excuse that would justify what I did."

Eyeing him narrowly, Gibbs said, "Are you apologizing because you honestly feel bad about what you did, or because you got caught, McGee, cause I'm not impressed with words coming after you realized what you did had been discovered."

When McGee just sat looking like he was going to be sick, Gibbs finally asked, "Why, McGee? Why?"

Gulping, McGee shook his head, looking miserable, "I…because I was tired of listening to Tony. He was going on and on and on, and…." He slumped, looking ashamed, "I wasn't thinking of what might happen. I didn't believe anything would happen."

"You didn't think anything would happen? Going into a neighborhood actively looking for someone who had probably committed multiple murders – and you didn't think something might happen?" Gibbs was livid. "What idiot part of your brain was thinking that, McGee?"

Flushing red, McGee stammered, "I didn't think…"

In an icy cold voice, Gibbs retorted, "No, you didn't."

McGee's skin crawled as he flinched back from the incensed anger in his boss's expression. He hadn't seen Gibbs this angry since Ari had been on the loose.

"And if it had been Ziva or myself out there instead of Tony?"

Sitting up straight, McGee stated, "Boss, I'd never leave you or Ziva out there without backup. You know that!"

"But not DiNozzo."

A flash of exasperation crossed McGee's face before he spoke, "Boss, you know what he's like. He wasn't taking it seriously, going on and on about movies and girls and…"

Gibbs cut him off sharply, "He wasn't taking it seriously? So, what, he spent hours on his feet going door to door, never knowing if the person answering was a killer because he felt it was fun? He thought it'd be entertaining to wander around for hours trying his best to find evidence pointing to a murderer because it was something he love to do in his spare time? He decided that he'd much rather keep on talking until he was hoarse because he enjoyed it? Is that what you think, McGee? Do you think that if it had been you out there pounding the pavement that he'd have turned the playback off and spent time flipping through the pages of a girlie magazine while sitting on his ass? Do you?"

Staring open-mouthed at his irate boss, McGee shook his head, "No, boss."

"Do you believe he wasn't thinking about what might happen if the killer wasn't identified and stopped? That he wasn't thinking about those people who'd been killed – how it affected their families? Or he wasn't thinking even a minute about what failing to do his job might cost someone else?"

"No, boss."

"Then why you do it?"

Looking a little lost, McGee swallowed, stammering out, "I don't know, boss. I've been thinking and thinking about it since I got home and…"

Glaring at him, Gibbs said, "Punishing him, McGee, for getting on your nerves? Getting back at him? Putting him in his place?"

A lightening quick flash of guilt came and went before his expression settling on misery, "I don't think…no….maybe…" Sweeping his hand over his face, McGee sat silent, miserable.

"Why did you do it, Tim?"

"Boss, I don't hate Tony! I'd never let him get hurt! I know he's got my back, and yours, and anyone else he works with, even if he doesn't like them. Yeah, he gets on everyone's nerves, but…" Shaking his head, McGee finally said, "I don't know, boss. I shouldn't have left him out there alone. It was wrong."

"You and Ziva both have your own moments when I'd like to head-slap you senseless. You better think about that next time you want to point fingers at DiNozzo." Gibbs' hand twitched as he controlled the urge to knock some sense into McGee's head right then and there.

Leaning forward into McGee's space, he continued, his eyes boring into his junior agent's, "The difference between DiNozzo and you is that as the Senior Field Agent he's responsible for your actions when I'm not around. I trust him, and I depend on him. And now, because you betrayed that trust, he's going to be held accountable for your actions. You think about that McGee. The position of Senior Field Agent isn't that of a glorified field agent. There are real and serious differences between your position and his. "

Standing, Gibbs stared down at him for the longest time, and McGee squirmed inside at the look, feeling like Gibbs could see straight into the deepest parts of his mind. "What you did was wrong. And worse, you can't explain why you did it even to yourself. Until you can, I can't trust you out in the field. And if you can't figure it out, you won't be coming back to my team."

With that, Gibbs left, and Tim sat on his couch for the rest of the night, feeling frightened and confused.


	11. Chapter 11

Once again, I'm awestruck by the reviews that keep streaming in for this story. I keep pinching myself and wondering if I'm dreaming, then decided that if I am, Rip Van Winkle better move over. And in gratitude for all those who've been reading and reviewing, I offer up virtual servings of Sour Cherry Chocolate Delights. As usual, all booboos are mine. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 11

Tony sat in his car for a minute after he'd turned it off, listening to the ticks and pings of the car settling in the quiet of the evening. He felt totally exhausted and looked forward to a hot shower and bed. He pulled the keys from the ignition and undid his seat belt. With a deep sigh of relief at being home, he opened the door and stood, stretching.

"DiNozzo! You foul smelling slimeball! You…you….dirtbag!" Nerves already on edge, he swung around in alarm. A fist slammed into his arm and he barely refrained from responding physically. Gasping at the surprise and pain, he didn't see the hand coming that slapped him hard enough across his face to make him see stars. As he fell back against his car, he tried to pull himself together as he recognized Abby's voice.

Straightening up, he found Abby's face inches from his, her eyes narrowed and furious. "How could you be so selfish? Do you enjoy hurting your coworkers? Does it make you feel good getting all of us in trouble? Does it? What kind of low-life does that to his friends? You're…you're horrible!" Balling up her fists, she slugged his right eye. Stomping her foot, pig-tails flying, she drew back her fist to swing at him again.

Catching her arm, Tony kept her fist away from him. He squinted, trying to see out of his now watering eye. "Abby! Enough! What do you think you're doing?"

"Don't you dare try and pretend like you don't understand, DiNozzo! You know what you did! Let me go!"

"Not until you calm down!"

With her fist restrained, she growled and dropped her purse, striking out with her other hand. He didn't know what she must have been holding, but her fist punching the other side of his face hurt far worse that it should have. Damn, he though, this has got to stop before someone gets hurt. Grabbing her wrist, he twisted her away from him and reached behind to grab his handcuffs. Before he could reach them though, he froze. _Handcuff Abby_? No way. The cop part of his mind responded coolly, _she's attacking you physically - why would you allow her to do that?_ _Especially when she's totally off base and wronged you as much as the other two did. When is enough enough?_

When she started kicking backwards at his shins, he turned to press her between himself and his car. She flung her head back, catching his forehead hard. Cursing to himself, he pressed harder with his hands and stepped back. Sharply, he snapped, "Abby, stop it!"

In response, she screamed, "Let me go, DiNozzo! I swear I'll kill you and no one will ever find your body! Let me go!"

Not sure what to do, Tony kept her pinned while thinking, which he found wasn't as easy as he thought it'd be considering how bad his head now hurt. He was tired and just wanted to retreat to his own apartment and shut the world out for a while. Dealing with an out of control Abby was not what he had in mind for the evening. He coldly asked, "Abby, what are you doing?"

"Let me go! I swear I'll call Gibbs! I'll…I'll call the cops! Let me go!"

Frustrated, he said under his breath, "Don't bother with calling the cops. I'm sure someone else has already done that for you." He noted his neighbors peeking out their windows, or coming out into the parking lot to see what was causing all the screaming. Dammit, he didn't need this on top of everything else that had happened that day. "Abby! Quiet down - you're out of control!"

"Don't you dare try and shut me up, you backstabber! You filed a complaint with Internal Affairs over _nothing_! It happened weeks ago and nothing happened! Why'd you do it, Tony? Why would you ever do something so despicable? How could you? I'm in trouble now with Vance, and got questioned by some IA weenie, and am on administrative leave! They're getting some lab monkey to come into _my_ lab and messing with _my_ stuff! My work! My lab! They're touching my stuff! All because of you! How can you live with what you did? How dare you!"

As she took a breath, he broke in before she could dive back in, "I didn't file a complaint with IA! The first time I knew anything was happening was when I was called in to be interviewed myself."

"Liar! What's Abby's rule number one! Never lie to Abby! You're in so much trouble, mister."

Wondering how he could have so badly misjudged his coworkers, he asked her in a tight, hard voice, "Why do you assume I caused any of this? I had nothing to do with it. Until this afternoon, I didn't even know what McGee and Ziva had done."

Finally stopping her struggling, Abby stood breathing heavily. "You're lying. I know you're lying. There is no way that anyone would know what happened except for you, me, Ziva, or McGee. And I know Ziva and McGee wouldn't have said anything cause it'd have gotten them into trouble. And I know I didn't tell anyone. That only leaves you."

"Well, I didn't tell anyone. I didn't know anything _to_ tell anyone. Back then, after I got back to the car, they told me they'd turned off the playback and hadn't been listening to me - I thought they were joking. I never thought they _actually_ did it."

"You're lying. You had to have known. _No one else knew_, so it had to be you who complained."

"I didn't tell IA. Someone send a copy of the police incident report to IA. That's how they found out. It wasn't me." He let her go now that she wasn't struggling to free herself.

She spun around, facing him, eyes still angry, her mascara running down her face from tears of frustration or anger. Poking him hard, she said, "Liar! There were no police voices on the recordings. None! Hard evidence, DiNozzo. You were the only one who would have known. Now stop lying. They're questioning my work now! All of my work, not just that case! All because of you!"

Angry, he got in her face, "Well, I didn't do it. And I can't believe you'd think I would. And I really can't believe that you'd listen to what they did and not at least tell me about it. What kind of friend does that make you, Ms Sciuto?"

Before she could work herself into another bout of spitting fury, he leaned forward to grab his coat out of the car. She darted away from him, circling around to his back. As he straightened, his coat in his left hand, she said, "We're going to talk this out, DiNozzo. You're going to admit you're wrong, and tell that IA guy that you want to withdraw that complaint because nothing happened." She shoved the door hard as he straightened. Caught off guard, the door slammed hard into his right knee. Gasping, he dropped his coat and keys and fell back against the side of the car, grabbing at his leg as excruciating pain exploded from the joint.

Several things happened then, simultaneously. A police cruiser, lights flashing, skidded to a stop behind Tony's car, and two officers exited in a hurry, running towards them. Tony started sliding to the ground as his balance shifted and he wasn't able to compensate. Abby stood transfixed watching Tony, her mouth open, eyes wide with stunned shock. A few people, neighbors living in Tony's apartment complex, moved forward, all talking at once.

One of the officers yelled at the people moving forward to back away, motioning them back. As she reached Abby, she grabbed her and pulled her hands behind her back and cuffed her. As she searched Abby rapidly for weapons, Abby stood motionless and unresisting, unable to believe what had just happened. Finding the brass knuckles Abby had on her left hand, the officer carefully removed and set it on top of Tony's car to await bagging, noting the spots of blood on it.

The second officer shoved a hand under Tony's arm and helped ease him down. Looking up at the cop, Tony blinked as he tried to comprehend where she'd come from. "What's…?"

"Sit still." The officer requested medical on her radio as she helped Tony shift until he could straighten out his leg enough to ease the pain a little. "Damn, please let it not be the ACL again…" Tony hissed under his breath.

A large burly man talked briefly to the cop who'd helped Tony, then knelt down himself. "Hey man, looks like you got yourself in a pickle. That the leg you had messed up in college?"

Tony focused on him. "Hey, Teddy. I'm fine." He felt relief that his neighbor was here. If he needed help getting around for the next hour or so, he could count on Teddy.

Snorting Teddy smirked, "Right. Where've I heard that before?" Using his chin to point in Abby's direction, he said, "What's with your friend there doing a number on you?" He tipped Tony's head towards a porch light, examining the bruises and cuts on his face. "You're gonna have a spectacular black eye or two by tomorrow."

Tony winced, "Misunderstanding. Is she ok?" He tried to find Abby, looking around. Seeing her in handcuffs, he nearly choked, "Hey! No cuffs, she's a friend!" He tried to stand, but Teddy wouldn't let him up.

The officer who'd helped him to sit crouched down. Pointing in Abby's general direction, she asked, "You know each other? What happened here?"

Tony gathered his thoughts, ignoring his throbbing knee, "We work together, NCIS. I'm a federal agent, Anthony DiNozzo. She's our forensics scientist. Bad day at work. Misunderstanding. She's upset and came over to talk. I'm not going to press charges against her – we're good friends."

Raising an eyebrow, the cop looked knowingly at him. "You two live together? Can't let her go? Couple of onlookers recorded most of what happened. Plus we witnessed her slamming the door, catching your knee. She's going to be booked for assault."

Tony groaned, closing his eyes. Gibbs was going to kill him. "We don't live together. We really are good friends, have been for years. She didn't slam the door to hurt me; she was closing it. You can't arrest her. Our boss…he'll go ballistic. And she really didn't mean to hurt me. She's just blowing off some steam."

Tony absolutely knew Abby hadn't intended to hurt him. Not really. A tiny little voice in the corner of his mind chipped in "Sure," in a mocking tone. He ignored it. "Look, I know what it looked like, but…believe me, if she wanted to hurt me, I wouldn't be standing."

The cop raised an eyebrow at that, then moved aside as two paramedics moved in, kneeling down next to him. Tony hadn't heard them arrive. He heard Teddy talking with them as he looked around trying to find Abby. If anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself. He tried again to stand, but the medics were fussing over him, talking about blood pressure and vital signs, wrapping a brace around his leg to immobilize the knee. He ignored them, looking around. Finally he asked, "You see her, Teddy?"

The man looked down at him, shrugging, "They just drove her off in a squad car a minute ago."

"What?! Stop them!" Pushing at the paramedics, he staggered to his feet, gasping at the effort it took, and the throbbing pain. "I gotta go."

Teddy steadied him, "Man, you gotta go to the hospital and get that knee looked at."

A new voice next to Tony said, "DiNozzo, get it looked at. You wanna end up on your ass recovering for a few months because you screwed that knee up worse that it already is? Where's your boss?"

Tony turned slightly to find a police sergeant who he played basketball with regularly after-hours. He was a friend of Gibbs also, so would understand when Tony told him, "Sarge, they gotta release Abby. If Gibbs finds out, he'll tear the station apart to get her out."

"You go with the paramedics to the hospital and get that leg looked at. I'll call Gibbs and meet him at the station."

As Tony opened his mouth to object, he held up a hand, and in a voice as stern as Gibbs' ordered, "Stop arguing. Go." He motioned to the paramedics who moved in and chivvied him onto the gurney. As the rear door of the ambulance closed, Tony gave up the fight and resigned himself to wait until Gibbs showed up to fire him for letting things get so far out of control. If he was lucky. Maybe Gibbs would skip the firing and just shoot him instead.

-000-

Sitting on the edge of an exam table in an ER bay with his right leg extended and secured in a knee brace, Tony continued arguing with the tired looking resident standing in front of him. "I heard you the first dozen times. Just bring me the AMA papers so I can get out of here. I'll be back after I get a few things straightened out."

The MD heaved an exasperated sigh. "We need to get the rest of those diagnostics tests done as soon as possible. If you need surgery on that knee…"

Starting to push himself to his feet, Tony interrupted, "I promise, I'll…"

"You'll sit your ass back down, DiNozzo, and do what the docs tell you to do."

Tony gaped at Gibbs as the man entered the room. A feeling of doom raced up his spine, making him shiver.

Swallowing, he said, "Boss, what are you doing here?" He looked behind Gibbs, trying to see if anyone was with him. "Where's Abby?"

"Sitting right where I left her."

Looking relieved, Tony relaxed a bit, "The waiting room then? Thank goodn…"

"In jail."

Feeling like he'd been punched in the gut, Tony swallowed and swayed a little, "What?" he said in a faint voice.

"She's safer there right now than where I can get my hands on her."

Tony felt his brain flame out, not able to comprehend what Gibbs had just said. _What?_

In the distance, Tony could hear Ducky's voice, "Anthony, are you all right? Lay back down before you pass out. I thought that doctor said you were stable. You need to keep that leg elevated."

Tony could feel himself being pushed back onto the bed, and his legs being swung up so he was laying flat. Ducky's voice faded off as the ME left the room.

Tony stared at Gibbs, unsure about what was happening.

"I have your keys and jacket. You'll do exactly what the doctor orders, DiNozzo. If you've screwed up that knee again, you'll be on desk duty until your ass grows calluses."

"Abby…she's…you left her in jail?"

"She needs to do a bit of thinking on what she just did, DiNozzo. Best place for her right now."

"But…"

Gibbs glared at him, "You arguing with me, DiNozzo?"

"What? No, boss. But…" As Gibbs stepped closer, Tony shut his mouth with an audible snap.

Crushing the now empty coffee cup, Gibbs lobbed it into a nearby garbage can. "I'll be back, and you better be here when I do."

Pausing near the door as Ducky reappeared, the team leader told him, "Stay with Tony, Duck, and make sure he does what he's told. I'll be back as soon as I can."

At Ducky's questioning look, he said, "I have one more person I need to talk with tonight."

As he strode off, Ducky pulled a chair up closer to the exam table. "Now, Anthony, how are you doing? The nurse will be in with some pain medication and anti-inflammatories, and you will take them without your usual arguments. The radiographs taken earlier look good, no breaks or bone chips are visible. The MRI though will reveal the true nature of what damage has occurred. The doctor is scheduling the test as soon as it can be arranged."

Propping himself up on his elbows, Tony asked, "Ducky, Abby's not…she's not still in jail is she? Gibbs, he was just…he'd never leave her there!"

"Indeed she is still is a resident, if only temporarily, of the local lockup facilities, Anthony. She has no one but herself to blame for the situation in which she currently finds herself. Her impulsive and rash behavior, after being instructed by Director Vance to have no contact with any other party involved in this investigation, does her no credit. It's time that girl realizes that there are consequences for disobedience. As to her unwarranted and faulty assumptions regarding the subject of the investigation, well, she needs to learn to think before speaking. Hopefully her sojourn tonight will give her the time she needs to reflect on how she ended up there in the first place."

Tony stared speechless at the doctor. Gibbs, and now Ducky? Had he slipped into some alternate universe without knowing it? As a nurse entered with a water bottle and a handful of pills, he swallowed the lot down without comment. He was dog-tired and drained from all had happened today. Closing his eyes, he told himself he wouldn't be surprised if he saw a large white rabbit in a waistcoat dashing down the hallway muttering about being late. "Ducky, can you make sure none of the docs or nurses are named Alice please?"


	12. Chapter 12

If you don't like Ziva, save some time and just skip this chapter. You've been warned. NCIS is a big elephant, and everyone is feeling their own little piece of the large beastie while blindfolded - so remember that you and I might not be feeling the same leg or tail or whatever. If we were all writing about the same few square inches of elephant, we'd miss the rest of the magnificent animal. In other words, if your part of the elephant feels like TIVA, great. Mine doesn't.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and a few PM'ers with whom I enjoyed batting ideas around. Thanks to Scouse, Binkie, and SASundance especially. Lots of warm, gooey, delicious chocolate brownies on their way to all who reviewed, PM, and enjoyed reading along so far!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 12

Ziva had been expecting Gibbs, and had a pot of strong coffee ready for him when he appeared at her apartment door. He took the steaming cup and pointed to the dining room table. Settling down across from each other, Ziva jumped in without waiting, "Gibbs, this is ridiculous! Why is everyone so upset over something that happened weeks ago? It is done, nothing happened. It should be best left alone. All it is doing now is causing trouble, yes?" She finished with a dismissive wave of her small hand.

"What's causing me trouble, Special Agent David, is your lack of understanding about how serious what you and McGee did. You abandoned your partner out in the field without backup. And I haven't heard anything yet from you so far that makes any sense about why you did it. E_xplain_."

Shaking her head in exasperation, Ziva tried again, "This happened weeks ago, Gibbs. _Nothing happened_. It was a quiet neighborhood, a simple assignment. I do not understand what the problem is! How did Internal Affairs find out about it anyway? Tony maybe sent them something secretly rather than come to us? Is not that a little childish?"

Eyes narrowed, Gibbs was having a hard time trying to prioritize everything that needed addressing in what he was hearing. Studying her, he wondered if she questioned her behavior at all. Was she really clueless, or just aggressively avoiding looking at her motives? Or worse, did she simply not care?

"DiNozzo said he didn't, and I believe him. He thought you were joking - he didn't believe you'd really do such a thing. Trusted you. And, even if he had filed a complaint, he was well within his rights to do so. If I'd found out this before IA had, we wouldn't be having this conversation _because I'd have fired your ass for doing such a stupid thing! _What were you thinking?"

Alarmed, Ziva stared at him. He was serious. "I do not understand. We are all here. Nothing happened. Why is this…?"

Gibbs cut her off, "Don't start with that again, Ziva. You're a fully qualified field agent. Before that, you served your mandatory two years in the Israeli military. The concept of teamwork and protecting your partner should be so deeply ground in you by now that you have no defense for claiming ignorance about what you and McGee did. So cut the b.s. and explain yourself."

Ziva fiddled with the cup in her hands, trying to buy time to come up with something that Gibbs would accept. It was ridiculous that this was coming up so long after it happened. She knew Tony thought it'd been a joke, and she had had no intention of ever correcting him. He had deserved it after going on and on, incessantly rambling on about movies (_films_, she corrected herself snarkily), characters the residents resembled, actors who played their parts, the comparison between crime dramas and the shooting and the possible motives of the residents who might be involved, the…she realized she was getting angry and upset again just thinking of the non-stop yapping Tony had engaged in that day. Throwing up her hands, she snapped, "He just would not shut up, Gibbs! You know how he is – everything has to be tied to a movie, a plot, a '_metaphor_', anything he can come up with just to hear himself talk. It was intolerable! I could not stand to listen to him for one more minute!"

"You did it because he _pissed you off_?" He rose, moving away from her before he did something he'd regret. Taking a deep breath to calm down, he stopped several feet away from the table and stared angrily at her, "Why didn't you take a break? Offer to switch jobs with him? Why didn't you simply ask him to cut back on the commentary? Why didn't you just suck it up and do your job? Why'd you skip over every option but the one that should never have crossed your mind, much less acted on? Why did you choose that particular action, David?" He was shouting at the end as he thought of what she had done.

Angry, Ziva yelled back, "Because I wanted him to shut up! He never grows up! He is like a…clueless child that has no awareness of what goes on around him, who has no idea how annoying his behavior is. He is selfish and someone needed to…to wake him up and make him see that!"

Gibbs leaned over the table, hands braced on the table top, "And you decided to step up and take care of the matter yourself. Is that it?" He glared at her, madder than he'd been in a long time.

Tipping her chin up in and looking faintly satisfied she said, "Someone had to do it."

Glowering at her, Gibbs wondered if she realized what she had just admitted. Turning away, he refilled his coffee cup, then sat back down across from her. Quietly, he said, "DiNozzo is one of the best agents I've ever worked with. He's a professional down to his core. You see what he wants you to see, and you, after all these years working with him, have never seen past his act? I find that hard to believe. You're too skilled yourself in the arts of deception and camouflage to not recognize it in others. Why are you trying to sell that line of crap to me? "

"He is a federal agent. He should act like one, and not like some idiot. Why does he do it? Why can he not act his age? If he is the professional you say he is, why does he not act like one?"

Leaning forward, he asked her intently, "A better question is why you aren't asking why he feels he needs to play the fool when he's with his teammates?"

Ziva stared at him, flummoxed at the question. "What?"

Raising an eyebrow at her, Gibbs replied cryptically, "Exactly."

Draining the cup of coffee, he set it down on the table. "Apart from throwing a temper-tantrum when you got irritated, you haven't provided me with one reason, good or bad, why you left your partner without backup. You will explain yourself to my satisfaction before I will even consider letting you set foot back in the bullpen and on my team."

Frustrated, Ziva hissed, "I only work with the best, Gibbs, you know that. He hardly measures up to you."

"Because he's a cop? And you were trained by the best Mossad has to offer?" He raised his hand to deliver a head-slap of epic proportions, but she was seated too far away to deliver it. "What makes you think you're even remotely qualified to make that sort of judgment?"

"Mossad training is known to be the best there is, Gibbs."

Correcting her, Gibbs snapped, "Mossad believes its training is the best there is for what Mossad does, which is spying and assassination. Its training in criminal investigation is virtually non-existent. And I am qualified to make that judgment since I trained you." Tapping the table between the two of them, he continued, "A spy or a cop - which of those do you think would be a better fit working for the Naval _Criminal Investigative _Service_, _David?"

Ziva opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. A spy was supposed to find things out, even better than a cop could with all those ridiculous rules that got cases thrown out if not followed 'just right'. His question wasn't fair.

"Your training and experience as a criminal investigator are no match for DiNozzo's. I've never heard DiNozzo claim even once that his skills and experience are better than yours because he understands that it's a mix of skills, talent, and experience that gets the job done the best way possible. You better think hard about that concept." Leaning forward, he told her, "I don't know where your sense of superiority comes from, Ziva, but you better lose it. A good agent is assertiveness and confident, but not arrogant."

Ziva stared at him with an open mouth, speechless, unable to believe what she was hearing.

Glancing at his watch, and his patience gone, Gibbs decided to make his expectations crystal clear to her, "If I think there's a problem with DiNozzo, I will deal with it. You will not."

"DiNozzo is my Senior Field Agent. I don't have multiple SFAs. If he gives you an order, you will carry it out. Insubordination will not be tolerated. As the team's Senior Field Agent, he does not need to explain himself to you, or justify his orders."

"You made the decision once to force me to choose between DiNozzo and you. You might want to remember what happened as a result. I only pick the best for my team, and you're rapidly moving yourself out of that category. Getting pissed off at your partner and abandoning him without backup is _inexcusable_. You better come up with something that will convince me you're worth salvaging, or you will find yourself off my team."

Rising, he left the apartment. Ziva stared after him, surprised, incensed, and afraid.

-000-

Gibbs made his way into the exam room with a fresh cup of coffee in hand. "Any results yet?"

Ducky glanced at Tony who had been dozing, and answered, "Preliminary MRI results on his knee should be coming soon. I suspect Anthony will be discharged rather than admitted assuming he has someone to keep an eye on him for the night. There are only minor indicators of a concussion as a result of Abigail striking him, but the doctors want to be cautious. There's a laceration on the side of his head that's been stitched up, and he will have a spectacular shiner by morning. Relieving her of some of the armament the team has provided her for protection while out and about might be prudent, Jethro."

Gibbs nodded while looking Tony over. His agent was stretched out on the exam table with his right leg propped up and a large ice pack mounded over the injured knee. Tony was holding another ice pack to the side of his head while watching the two of them speak. His right eye was swollen almost shut and was already showing signs of the shiner he'd have soon.

"You holding up, DiNozzo?"

With a lopsided smile, Tony gave Gibbs a thumbs up. "Wish the doc would hurry up so I can get out of here."

With nice timing, a new doctor appeared in the doorway. "Mr. DiNozzo?"

Tony waved at him, and the man entered. His scrubs were rumpled, and he looked tired. "Dr. George Hersh, radiologist." The doctor shook hands as Tony introduced Gibbs and Ducky. Leaning against the cabinets along one side of the room, the doctor reported on his findings, "The good news is that the initial MRI scan show the ACL and other ligaments and tendons in the knee area are intact. The kneecap is badly bruised, as is an area about six centimeters across on the lower end of the femur right above the knee joint. There is concurrent soft tissue damage to the entire area as well. As you can tell, bone bruises are quite painful, and they can take a while to heal. I strongly recommend you find a good orthopedic specialist. The area will need to be monitored, and you'll need extensive PT to regain full motion in the knee joint. I can recommend a few specialists if you like."

Ducky asked, "So, no surgery is needed on the knee itself?"

"Not that I can see at this point. Mostly the injury needs rest and the tincture of time," the doctor answered. "A second MRI should be done in a few days to make sure nothing new pops up." Pushing himself up from the cabinet he was leaning on, the doctor asked, "Any questions?"

When no one spoke, the doctor took his leave, saying he'd let the ER doctor know the findings. Ducky followed him out, answering his ringing phone as he went. Relieved, Tony gave a big sigh of relief. "That's the first good news I've heard all day….er, night. Easing himself up, he asked, "Anything new?"

Gibbs only gave a slight head-shake. Sipping his coffee, he sank down on a chair, "No. We're off rotation until Monday. Vance is bringing in a TAD to cover while we figure out where to go with this mess. You'll be following leads and doing the research at your desk on any cases we pick up until you're off medical leave."

Glancing at Gibbs, Tony asked, "Any idea at all how Vance will handle this?"

"Not yet. IA will be looking into the mess Abby got herself into tonight. They'll need a day or two to get that nailed down." He was waiting for Tony to revisit the forensic scientist's current situation, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Gibbs said, "Don't. She dug her hole and jumped in after she was told to have no contact with any of the team. No excuse for what she did, and no excuse for assaulting you." Glaring at Tony, he followed with, "Don't make me repeat myself, DiNozzo."

Swallowing his words, Tony slumped back, momentarily defeated. Lying back down, he groaned inwardly. How had things fallen so completely apart in such a short period of time? He never imagined Abby would lose it as badly as she had. Why hadn't she at least given him a chance to explain? And not believing him - that hurt most of all.

Ducky reappeared, "The nurse will be in shortly with a temporary brace for your knee, Anthony. After the swelling has gone down, you'll need to be fitted with one better sized. I know an excellent orthopedic physician here in town I can put you in touch with would take superb care of you and get you back up on your feet as soon as possible. And, you will need crutches for a while, my dear boy, to take the weight off that joint. The more you fail to follow instructions, the longer you'll be out of commission, so you may want to actually behave yourself this time." He patted Tony's arm affectionately. "The paperwork to discharge you will be in shortly also. You will need to stay with Jethro tonight, or he with you to monitor for a concussion, though you may have gotten lucky this time and escaped without one."

With an uncomfortable expression, Ducky looked at Gibbs, "That was Mr. Palmer calling, Jethro. Apparently, the local constabulary's facilities are overflowing with guests, so they have released several on their own recognizance, including Abigail. She called him for a ride home, since she apparently thinks you would refuse a similar request. I asked him to call and let me know how the girl is doing after he escorts her home." With a frown, he observed, "I do hope she takes time to reflect on how she got herself into her current situation before she does herself another misdeed."

Gibbs ran his hand over his face, wearily, thinking back to the brief exchange he'd had with Abby at the jail facility….


	13. Chapter 13

Had time to tidy this up, so I'm posting it early. Abby's finally getting a clue and isn't too happy with the outcome. Will she recover from the mess she's gotten herself in or not – only time will tell. Thanks to Scouse for the beta, but since I messed with it up after she'd cleaned things up, any booboos are my fault. Since summer has decided to poke its head out and peek around, this chapter is brought to all you wonderful reviewers by a huge serving of wonderfully cool and sweet ice cream. Nuts and whipped cream available. Your choice of flavors. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 13

Earlier that night….

_The Charger pulled to a quick stop in a truck loading zone across the street from the precinct and Gibbs spotted Sarge standing next to the entrance with a cup of steaming coffee in each hand. Taking the offered cup with a nod of thanks, the two men stood for a moment, fortifying themselves with healthy swigs of the industrial strength brew. The two men were of an age, and they occasionally met at a bar or café to shoot the breeze, or joined in a game of basketball at the activity center that several law enforcement agencies used for after-hours league practice. Both had served in the first Gulf war, but Sarge had made it through without injury, and retired from the Marines after 20 years of service. He applied for and was hired by Metro PD when he retired, and quickly moved up the ranks to Sergeant where he seemed quite happy to remain. _

_"How's DiNozzo?"_

_"Still running tests." Gibbs took another sip of the coffee. "What happened?"_

_"Abby didn't like something Tony did. _Really_ didn't like it. Clobbered him a couple of times, once with brass knuckles, then slammed his car door on his right leg. Caught him right across his knee. Called in as a possible domestic. Damn, Abby has a set of lungs on her – could hear her yelling a block away. Didn't get there until after Abby was in cuffs. Tony was on the ground - didn't want her arrested. Put up a fuss when the arresting officers took her off in their cruiser. Convinced him to get checked out after I promised to check on her and call you."_

_Gibbs shook his head at what he'd heard. She'd been told to stay away. Warned twice in fact by Vance. _

_"She quieted down on the way in. I think seeing Tony on the ground shocked her. Hasn't said more than two words when I checked on her in booking." Sarge paused, looking speculatively at Gibbs, "Word has it that this might be related to a dust up between some of your agents?" _

_Scowling, Gibbs drained his cup and tossed it in a nearby garbage can. "Yeah." _

_ Sarge looked at him closely, "Scuttlebutt says Tony's partners left him in the field without backup. IA's involved?"_

_After a few seconds, Gibbs nodded, "Gawd-awful stupid…two of them left DiNozzo alone without cover for two hours."_

_Looking nonplussed, Sarge asked, "Related to that wacko group that set off a bomb during a neighborhood event?"_

_Gibbs nodded. "DiNozzo was picking up voice recordings of residents. Had a voice message to try and match to the recordings. Related to the murder of a Commander and a DJ at a radio station."_

_"I remember that. Both had been shot dead. Any of the recordings match the message?"_

_"Yeah. If that guy had made him…"_

_ "Damn. Why in hell did those two leave him…?"_

_Shaking his head, Gibbs told him, "Dunno."_

_"And let me guess, Abby sided with the two who left him without backup."_

_"Yeah. She didn't report them when she found out what they'd done."_

_Sarge thought for several seconds then added, "So she decided to pay Tony a visit and make her views on the situation known."_

_ "After being told to have no contact…"_

_With a wince, Sarge motioned to the door to the precinct. "C'mon, she should be finished with booking. We're filling up fast tonight – some drug sting in Anacostia area. With her long-term employment and residency history in the area and a lack of a record, she might be ROR'd later when they start to matrix bodies out." _

_Gibbs followed him down the hallway towards the back entrance to the jail booking/holding area. "Might do her some good to sit here and think about what she's done."_

_With a half-grin, Sarge said over his shoulder to him, "Tough love?"_

_Gibbs exchanged a look with him that clearly said he agreed with the thought._

_-000-_

_Gibbs entered an attorney/client conference room where Abby was sitting. As soon as she saw him, she jumped up and ran forward, embracing him in a tight hug. "Gibbs! Get me out of here! Please!"_

_Pausing for a few seconds more to let her calm down, he firmly extracted himself from her grasp and sat her down on the bench running along two sides of the room. Standing back, he just stared at her. _

_She twisted her hands together anxiously, looking lost and uncertain. "Say something, Gibbs. You're making me nervous just standing there. Did those LEOs tell you what they did to me? To me of all people! Handcuffs! They handcuffed me! I tried to tell them that they didn't understand, and that I was just talking to Tony. And when he, Tony, lied to me, I got so mad, but I wasn't hitting him that hard, Gibbs! He knows better! What's Abby's rule number one? Never lie to Abby! He had no…." _

_She petered out when he didn't respond. "Gibbs?" Tears started to well up in her eyes. It was finally dawning on her that he was angry. Very angry. Swallowing, she stared back at him, worried._

_Finally, he spoke, "You went to DiNozzo's apartment?"_

_"Yes! He had to take back that awful story he…." She petered off again when he didn't respond. Her nose was growing red slowly as more tears started to fall._

_"You confronted him?"_

_She nodded, not saying anything this time. Biting her lower lip, she looked down, not able to meet his gaze. _

_"You were told, twice, by the Director to have no contact with the rest of the team."_

_A spark of defiance set her off again, "He has no right to tell me what I can or can't do on my own time, Gibbs!"_

_"Yes, he does. And he did. And you disobeyed his order." _

_"But, Gibbs, I had to talk to Tony. He had to understand that he got it all wrong. He has to take back what he said before…"_

_Gibbs cut her off, "DiNozzo had nothing to do with starting this investigation. A copy of the police incident report was sent anonymously to IA. It got hung up in the mail room and was finally processed just last week. It went to legal, then to the archives. The report had a handwritten note on it that asked how McGee and David could be backing him up if they had the playback turned off. One of the officers said he wrote it. That's what started the investigation. Tony didn't know there was an investigation underway; never saw the report that started it until he was interviewed by IA himself right after your interview." _

_"But…if he didn't do it, then who did?"_

_"What part of anonymous do you not get, Abby?"_

_"But, there was nothing on the recordings about a police stop." She was grasping at straws now, a spiky ball of alarm growing inside of her as she began to comprehend how badly she had misjudged what had happened._

_"The LEOs came and went while the playback and mikes in the car were turned off."_

_"But…" Oh. She'd totally screwed up calling Tony a liar. She could feel her face flush and felt sick to her stomach. Tony…she had told him she didn't believe him. And had hit him. And his leg… She swallowed hard, feeling like she was going to vomit. She hadn't meant to hurt his leg. _

_Gibbs moved a little closer, still standing, "You listened to McGee and David talking about turning the playback off. You heard when they actually did it. You knew the possibly there was a murderer in the neighborhood. You know the rules about working out in the field without a backup. You knew all this, and you didn't report it. You didn't come to me. Why?"_

_"Because nothing had happened! All three were back when I was listening to the recordings. And can you blame them? Tony had been talking non-stop since he started out. You know they can't stand Tony when he goes on and on…."_

_She shrank back, suddenly afraid as Gibbs knelt down in front of her, his face thunderous, "You knew they were violating basic safety regulations for agents in the field. And you thought it was ok because you agreed with why they did it? That it was acceptable to put their partner's life in danger?"_

_Abby was so shaken that she had to do something, anything, to get away from the huge sense of shame she was feeling now for what she had done. "Gibbs! I'm sorry! I didn't think…I…" She swallowed, throat closing up. _

_Gibbs knew later he'd remember the look of anguish on her face and wish he could undo her pain, but right now his anger with her kept him from backing down. He knew he had no choice but to move forward. Abby had made a decision back then that was totally out of line, and now she would have to live with the consequences._

_Rising and dusting off his knees, he told her, "You need to think about what you did and why back then and tonight. Both IA and Vance are going to want answers. And even more important, how are you going to explain all of it to DiNozzo. You had better be prepared to live with his response. And you'll also need to deal with criminal charges for assault. If you're convicted, you're going to lose your job."_

_She looked at him, stunned. "But, Gibbs, can't you talk to the police? I'm so sorry for hitting Tony! I didn't mean it. Tony won't press charges…would he?"_

_"The police witnessed you assaulting DiNozzo. The DA has no choice but to file charges."_

_"But, can't you do something?" _

_"There isn't anything I can do. You're going to have to see this one through."_

_The disbelief on Abby's face, the look of betrayal, cut into his very core. He grew angry at her for putting him in this position, but forced that down as being unproductive. Remembering Tony lying on the exam table, face white, waiting for news on how badly his knee had been damaged. _

_As Abby dissolved into sobs, he quietly turned and left the room, leaving her behind. A knife blade of self-hatred for what he was doing struck deep in his gut. He kept walking and forced himself to not look back._

_-000-_

Tony glanced at Gibbs, wondering what he was thinking. The man seemed lost in thought, and his driving was almost at the upper edge of normal. He knew that Gibbs was fit to be tied over the implosion of his team in less than a day, and wish he knew how to get things back to normal. And whatever had gone on between Abby and Gibbs had clearly taken a toll on his boss. Time to pull his "very well behaved" persona on and give Gibbs some space to recover.

His knee was aching deep inside with a gripping pain that even resting didn't ease. As much as he hated it, he considered taking the pain meds Ducky had insisted on picking up at the pharmacy. The last thing he wanted was to keep Gibbs up by tossing and turning all night long. And, he admitted to himself, he really could use a night without aching from one end to the other.

-000-

Gibbs stole an occasional glance at Tony, wondering what was going through his unusually quiet Agent. He knew that his leg must be hurting like a son of a gun. Ducky made it clear that Tony wouldn't get anything close to a good night's sleep without pain meds on board. He'd have to convince Tony to just cooperate for once and take the meds. If Tony wasn't getting a good night's sleep, he knew he'd be toss and turning all night long worrying about him.

And he knew Tony had to be a mess worry about how his teammates had screwed him over, and deeply upset over Abby's accusations. Time to rein his temper in and give Tony a break from coping with a moody boss. He mentally head-slapped himself for letting things get so far out of hand. He'd let Tony down, and now it would be his job to back his agent up all the way during this mess. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry. Right now he had an injured agent to take care of….


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry this is so late and so short. Deadline at work to meet, and I had a disagreement with a sidewalk that it won, so I've been recuperating with the aid of the Tincture of Time and some of those pain pills that make poor Tony so loopy. I'm in catch up mode now, so hopefully the next chapter will be longer, better, and more timely. It's double treat time to make up for the long delay. I really appreciate the reviews – they kept me from complete despair while cursing the human body for all its fragility. So, without further ado, have a virtual slice of kitty-litter cake and/or handfuls of chocolate dipped pretzels mixed with a variety of M&Ms and Smarties.

Just a note: as far as I am aware, the International Board of Criminology does not exist, and as such neither do their rules and regulations. But I sure had fun dreaming it up!

Any booboos are the fault of those pain pills.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 14

Several days later, Gibbs entered the bullpen, pausing to take in the newest batch of get-well cards, liberally interspersed with cards from friends of Tony quietly supporting him after news about what had happened made its way through the law enforcement community. Gibbs knew Vance was surprised at cards coming in from all across the country as well as more than a few from overseas. The volume took Vance aback as well. The Director had thought Tony's circle of contacts was relatively local, but the evidence in front of him had demonstrated as nothing else could that Tony's influence was as widespread as those Vance considered valuable for their overseas network of contacts.

The entire office had enjoyed the gifts of homemade treats that had been making regular appearances on Tony's desk. The one gift that might have caused some trouble, a t-shirt with "I Got Your Back" printed boldly across it, had gone home with Tony the same day it arrived before Vance had seen it.

Knowing Tony would be arriving soon, Gibbs headed upstairs to the conference room. The meeting this morning was when final reports on the various investigations were due, after which Vance would hopefully provide the first hints of disciplinary actions he was considering.

To say Gibbs was worried about Tony was an understatement. As the days passed, he'd become more reserved, more professional, and less friendly with everyone, including his TAD teammates. Gibbs knew some of it was due to the several sessions with an outside shrink who'd been brought in to evaluate Tony, Ziva, McGee, and Abby. Gibbs had taken Tony home for cowboy steaks and his version of support a couple of times now, and he knew that while Tony was feeling guilty for everything "falling apart", he was also _finally_ letting his 'cop' and 'SFA' parts come forward and settle in the driver's seat. The change in perspective was just what Tony needed to take off his blinders and see what had happened for what it was – something no law enforcement agency would ever tolerate. All Gibbs needed now was to keep Tony from sliding into the "I doubt my judgment now because I didn't see this coming" pit. If Tony was guilty of that, then so was he.

-000-

As the last of the expected participants settled down around the conference table, Vance thanked his assistant for refilling both the regular coffee maker and the second one filled with an industrial-strength grind he had brought in just for Gibbs. This might be a long meeting, and he wasn't going to risk Gibbs running out of coffee before it was finished.

Vance went around the table making introductions. Present were representatives from Legal, Internal Affairs, an independent forensics analysis auditing contractor, the local District Attorney, and Psych Services.

Vance invited the forensics analysis auditor to report first, since he would be dismissed from the meeting as soon as his report was complete. The man, Sean Morrison, passed out copies of his final report to those present. "Director, thank you for the opportunity to assist your organization. We completed a full audit of a random sampling of cases that Ms. Sciuto worked on going back ten years. Statistically speaking, the sample size is an accurate representation of her work with a 95% degree of accuracy plus or minus 3%."

Referring to the report, the man continued, "Overall, the forensics analysis work Ms. Sciuto performed was accurate, organized, and thorough. In some instances, her unique perspective and custom designed tests she ran were exceptionally inspired, and led to results that would not have otherwise been discovered. The few errors we uncovered were very minor and insignificant and were not included in this report.

"Having said that, there were two instances of substantial deficiencies found. The first instance had no bearing on the investigation and prosecution of the case itself. This, of course, was the case that brought us here in the first place. Her neglect in analyzing, documenting, and reporting the missing conversation between the two agents – McGee and David – was a serious violation of forensics analysis protocols and ethics. The absence of this material in her final report is grounds for an internal review by the International Board of Criminology Licensing Division. It is possible that she may be placed on probationary status for up to six months by the licensing board, and face another audit before her license can be reinstated.

"The second case is more complicated and needs additional investigation. It has to do with a murder victim, a Pedro Hernandez, the Mexican government asked Ms Sciuto to work on several weeks ago. While the record of the request is in order, the records of the ballistics analysis she did on a bullet recovered from the body are incomplete, and there is no final report to be found nor working laboratory notes she would have used to create that report. The absence of these documents combined with the lack of a written explanation of why the analysis was suspended or stopped is a violation of the continuity of records required by the IBCFAD. If this is not corrected within a specified period of time – in this case, six weeks from the most recent date on the case's forensics documentation, which is close to expiring - her license will be suspended, and any work she has performed will be inadmissible in court.

"The final problem uncovered by this audit has to do with the laboratory itself. The policies and procedures of lab certification require all non-licensed personnel be excluded from the laboratory. This policy appears to be routinely ignored in Ms Sciuto's laboratory. There are records also of non-licensed personnel performing analysis work in the lab. The instance we uncovered showed two NCIS Special Agents attempting to perform analysis work in the lab, guided by a hand-created book of instructions left by Ms Sciuto for use in her absence. There was also an instance of cleaning of the laboratory by the same two agents as well as the assistant to the Medical Examiner several days afterwards. Only trained and certified custodial staff should be allowed in the lab. Personnel who are not trained can cause serious injury to themselves and others when cleaning bio-hazardous and chemical materials such as are found in the lab. This lapse in policy and protocol in laboratory procedures requires specific action by the IBCFAD. I'm afraid your lab will be decertified until you can show that procedures and policies are in place to prevent these violations from happening in the future."

Morrison concluded, "I hope this summary has answered some of the issues you brought us in to audit, Director." Nodding at the report in Vance's hands, he finished with, "The details of our audit are in the report. To recap, I believe Ms Sciuto's work is usually accurate and thorough. The two incidents involving her work as well as the laboratory procedure violations will be passed on to the certification board for action. I recommend you use another laboratory in the interim until these problems have been addressed. The notification of any change in Ms Sciuto's licensing status, and the laboratory decertification will be sent to your office within the next two weeks, along with information on how to correct the noted issues."

Looking around the room, he noted concerned looks on several faces. "Are there any questions you have?"

The representative from legal spoke up, "So, what you are saying is that you found nothing wrong with the overwhelming majority of Ms. Sciuto's work. None of her work on cases currently being prosecuted has been compromised?"

Morrison nodded, "That is correct."

After a pause during which Vance waited for any further questions, the Director stood and held out his hand, "Thank you, Mr. Morrison. I appreciate your efforts, especially with such a tight timeline to meet. My office will be in touch to work out how to correct the problems you've brought to our attention."

Vance escorted the man to the door and turned him over to a waiting agent to escort out of the building. Returning to his seat, he took a deep breath, "What a damned screw up." Running a hand across his face, he gathered up the report and glared at it. "Legal will have to deal with this. Right now, I don't want to see this report again until at least tomorrow. If I do, I'm liable to fire more than a few people on general principles." He glared at Gibbs while he said that.

Gibbs just stared back at him, wondering how much worst this was going to get before the meeting was over. Maybe he should have brought that bottle of antacids on DiNozzo's desk with him. He wondered if Ducky could provide him with a mild tranquilizer to slip into the Director's coffee.

Vance dug a toothpick out of his jacket pocket and clamped his teeth on it. When it promptly broke in two, the Director stood, "I need a break. Be back here in 10 minutes." He strode out of the room without looking back.

Gibbs watched him, his gut churning….


	15. Chapter 15

I'm sorry it's been so long getting this chapter out. Work's been sucking down gobs of time, and the state legislators have been doing nasty things to small animal rescues that have imposed a ton of new documentation requirements or risk being shut down. (I'll refrain from stating my opinion on certain organizations in the interest of keeping this A/N out of the x-rated category, but I will state that they should be on anti-psychotics.) So, rather than writing, I've been dealing with that mess. Thanks to Scouse and Binky for ironing out the wrinkles on this chapter since I was only able to work on it piece-meal and it showed. Remaining booboos are all mine. I'm afraid I scarfed down all the goodies I was going to offer up in thanks to all the reviewers in an effort to maintain my sanity and temper, but I'm working on more! Honest!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 15

Returning to the conference room, Vance sat down, his face set and angry. Staring around at those present, he said in an icy cold voice, "I want to know how this lapse in standards happened. I will _not_ have any department in this organization shut down because policy, regulations, or procedures weren't followed. I will be assigning a Deputy Director to perform a thorough review of all departments, and I _better not find anything else out of compliance_."

Gibbs knew that having the forensics lab decertified was going to be a major headache. Worst case scenario, every case that relied on forensics analysis would have to be reviewed. Challenges claiming possible contamination or improper processing of evidence would be filed on every active case; convictions might be reversed. This was going to be a huge nightmare for the agency. Gibbs couldn't bring himself to fault Vance for his reaction to what was happening. With a growing unease for what this might mean for Abby, Gibbs turned his attention to what was going on in the meeting.

Visibly curbing his anger, Vance motioned to the Head of Psychological Services, "Dr. Harrison, please present your findings on Ms. Sciuto's evaluation." Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm himself further, he added, "And please skip everything not directly related to the matter at hand."

Nodding to the Director, the man prefaced his evaluation, "It's difficult to complete a comprehensive evaluation in such a short period of time, you understand. People are complex and pulling out single threads to focus on does the person an injustice because of the over simplification. Please keep that in mind when listening to the evaluation."

Pursing his lips, Harrison opened a folder and leafed through his notes. As he began, he wondered if he'd be walking out of the room alive once Special Agent Gibbs heard what he had to say. Start with something good, he thought to himself. "Ms Abigail Sciuto, Forensic Scientist….impressive IQ, education, and credentials – one of the top forensic scientists in the country."

Leaning back to glance around, he continued, "To summarize - as I'm sure you're aware, Ms Sciuto is a rather happy and exuberant person, a bit of a Goth Pollyanna as it were - which could be seen as a bit of a contradiction if you think about it.

"One factor contributing to this is a result of growing up in a family with two deaf parents, and being placed in the role of interpreter between her hearing world and her family's deaf world. While there are studies of deaf children of hearing parents, there are few of hearing children of deaf parents. Within the inner-dynamics of such a family, some children find themselves partially assuming the role of parent and protector; they screen information deemed too upsetting or disturbing to their parents. This not only presents an unrealistic view…. "

Vance interrupted, clearly irritated, "Please _focus_, Dr. Harrison."

At Vance's admonishment, Harrison scowled, not pleased. Maybe he should be more worried about the Director's reaction than Gibbs. "Very well, Director."

Shuffling several papers aside, he paused skimming the material, then started his report again, "While generally well balanced, Ms. Sciuto does show some hints that her inner resiliency isn't as strong as it could be. With the workload she carries, Ms Sciuto has little time to invest in developing strong relationships outside of work. In what free time she has for recreation, she enjoys visiting establishments such as Goth clubs and bars, and participates in organizations whose focus is on performing altruistic good-deeds. But, her participation in these activities is interrupted by the overriding requirements of her job, which frequently impinge on her…."

Gibbs glanced at the director in surprise as he heard what he thought was a growl coming from Vance.

Harrison stumbled to a stop, wondering if he really had heard….no, he must had been mistaken. Blinking cautiously at Vance who stared back at him with impatience, he decided to play it safe, and abandoned the report item he'd been working through. "Moving on then….while Ms Sciuto may serve the forensics needs of the investigative teams posted at the Navy Yard as well as other NCIS locations, she has developed a particularly close affiliation with Special Agent Gibbs' team. They've formed a close-knit version of a family, and she relies on them heavily to meet her social and emotional needs.

"The role she has found herself in is that of the youngest sibling, beloved by all. And, as sometimes happens with the youngest sibling, she has formed a belief that she is the special or the favored one in this little family group. Adopting this model of family and her place in it has led to a sense of stability and support for her."

"While emotionally satisfying, adopting this role does have some negative drawbacks. Over time she has acquired behaviors that suggest a regression in some aspects of her maturity. Most people as they reach adulthood develop the ability to cope with adversity, as has Ms. Sciuto. However, since Ms. Sciuto has found her second family, she's been protected and shielded by those closest to her. She has come to expect this protection – to have bad things taken care of by those around her. When things happen that can't be fixed she finds her feelings of stability and support threatened, and she can react strongly."

With an effort, Harrison kept from shifting further from Gibbs as he felt the glower Gibbs had focus on him. Never again he thought. This would be the last time he ever did evaluations on anyone even remotely associated with Gibbs and his team. Swallowing, he mustered up the nerve to continue his report.

"Specifically addressing the events that have brought us here…." He returned several pages of notes to the folder and scanned the few left in his hand. "As she reviewed the recordings taken during the assignment in the Royal Woods neighborhood, when nothing negative happened as a result of the audio being turned off she felt their actions were a non-issue. She admitted she knew it was a violation of protocol and policy, but to report it would bring what she felt were unwarranted consequences to two members of her 'family'.

"When the matter resurfaced, especially via an unexpected and stressful IA interview in an interrogation room, she felt threatened. She didn't want McGee or David to be disciplined, and she felt that Agent DiNozzo put himself in that position because he could never 'be serious' and his teammates had a right to react as they did.

"She knew she should have reported what happened. She knew it was a serious violation of agency protocols and policies. But most of all during the interview, she feared that her protected youngest sibling status might not be enough to keep her safe from the consequences of her actions. So, feeling very threatened, she reacted badly."

As Harrison paused again, scanning through his notes, he tried again to shift unobtrusively away from Gibbs. The glare from the team senior member was sharp enough to leave bruises, he thought. _Never again_, he vowed.

"Ms. Sciuto's er, visit, to Agent DiNozzo's residence later that evening when she confronted him….I believe she finally acknowledged that she had gotten herself into a mess that might end badly for her. She was expecting her 'family' to rally around her, circle the wagons as it were, and fix the problem. When it wasn't clear that this would happen, she took it upon herself to push her 'older brother' into fixing this problem by throwing himself on his sword since she believed it was his fault this whole investigation was happening in the first place.

"When things didn't work out as she expected, she did what made sense to her, and…well, she reacted in frustration."

Vance sat forward, staring at Harrison with a disbelieving expression. "Are you saying that Ms. Sciuto, a highly educated and experienced forensic scientist, working for a federal law enforcement agency in a position that is critical in achieving its mission….threw a temper-tantrum?"

With a startled look, Harrison thought about Vance's question for a few seconds before half-shrugging, "Well….I wouldn't call it that myself, but I supposed that…er, in a way, you could call it that, yes."

Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to ease the headache that had been building over the last hour, Vance wondered how in hell things had gotten to this point. _A temper-tantrum_? Shaking his head, he decided to move on for now.

"Anything else you want to report, Dr. Harrison?" he asked.

Licking his lips, Harrison glanced at his papers then, with a well-developed sense of preservation, he shook his head, "No, Director."

"Very well. Thank you, Doctor, for your efforts. I'm sure this assignment hasn't been the easiest for you, and your findings have been very enlightening."

Nodding to the District Attorney, Vance told her, "Thank you for making yourself available for this meeting, Ms. Vale. Can you tell us how things stand with the legal actions pending against Ms Sciuto?"

Sending a look of sympathy to the Director, the older, immaculately attired, no-nonsense woman started with a greeting to those present, "I am sorry that all of you have to deal with such a situation. I can assure you that you aren't the first to find yourself in such a quagmire."

"The situation with Ms. Abigail Sciuto is, at least at the local level, fairly straightforward. She was observed by multiple witnesses in a verbal altercation with Special Agent DiNozzo. She had struck him twice by the time two Metro police officers arrived on the scene. They observed her slamming his car door, striking his right leg. As Agent DiNozzo started to collapse, Ms. Sciuto was taken into custody. Medical aid was summoned for Agent DiNozzo, and additional officers were summoned to assist with securing the scene and with interviewing the witnesses.

"Ms. Sciuto was transported to the nearest precinct, and booked for assault, and disorderly conduct. She was released on her own recognizance a few hours later. Special Agent DiNozzo was transported by the DC Fire Dept to Bethesda for treatment. He made his statement to Metro the next day, and the paperwork was forwarded to our office for processing."

"After discussing the matter with your agency and the federal legal representative on duty, we decided to charge Ms. Sciuto with the assault, and dismiss the disorderly conduct charge. She was arraigned a week ago last Friday and had retained private counsel. A plea of not guilty was entered, and the case was set over for trial. Since she is not in custody, the earliest trial date will be several weeks off.

"I understand she is on administrative leave pending the resolution of the criminal charges. I see no reason she cannot remain out on recog until the trial date. We will be offering her the opportunity for a pretrial plea agreement the week before her scheduled trial date, though we would entertain an offer from her counsel at any time before then, of course."

Glancing at the representative from legal, she commented, "As this is a misdemeanor assault charge, and her first encounter with the criminal justice system, and given her position in NCIS, her long work history, her charitable community activities over the years, and residential stability in the community, she qualifies for a diversion program. If she wants to avail herself of this opportunity, she pleads guilty, completes an anger management program, pays certain court costs as well as restitution to Agent DiNozzo for his unreimbursed medical costs, and completes a specified number of community work hours. After that, her conviction would be vacated."

"At this stage, we're waiting for Ms. Sciuto's counsel to let us know if she wants to pursue this option." Gesturing at the representative from legal, she continued, "All of this applies to the local assault charge. There is still the question of possible federal charges for assault of a federal law enforcement officer and any other related charges. If the US Attorney General staff decides to prosecute Ms Sciuto, we will, of course, drop the local assault charge."

Vance addressed Gabe Jonas, "What are your thoughts on this. Gabe? How did your second interview with Ms Sciuto on the assault go?"

"By the time I arranged to interview her, she was in the midst of falling apart. She's not only realized the scope and consequences of her actions, but she's very upset at how badly she's let Tony down. She admits freely her part in all of this going back to her analysis of the recordings through the confrontation with Tony, and accepts responsibility for her actions. To her credit, she seems to be aware of the possible consequences of her actions with respect to challenges to the court cases that she's worked on, and is very upset at the possibility of convictions being overturned. I'm not sure she's even thought about the possibility of decertification and her accreditation and licensing, or if so, she hasn't mentioned it.

"To be honest, at this point, I'm worried about her emotional state. She is looking at the possible loss of her 'adoptive' family, her job, her professional credibility….no matter how you look at it, she's in a world of hurt." He looked at Gibbs, and in a quiet voice, he said, "Sorry, Gibbs."

Gibbs sat expressionless, motionless, lost in his own thoughts. How could Abby, with her long friendship with Tony, excuse what David and McGee had done? It didn't make sense. What was really going on inside that head of hers?

Looking at Ms. Vale, Gabe continued, "I was able to walk Abby through the confrontation with Tony. The brass knuckles were given to her by her colleagues for self-defense when she was being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. They've become an automatic part of her self-protection routine, and she had them on her left hand when she was waiting outside of Tony's apartment complex for Tony to return home that night. I believe she'd forgotten she was wearing them when she struck him. She is aware they are illegal in DC, but felt their protection was worth the transgression.

"She did strike Agent DiNozzo multiple times – she freely admitted she was in the wrong. She also owned up to disobeying your direct order, Director, to avoid contact with the other team members. I'll be submitting a Supplemental IA Report covering her actions the night she confronted Agent DiNozzo."

"Thank you, Agent Jonas." Vance turned to the last representative to speak, "Pat, what does Legal have to say on this?"

Pat Garcia, a grizzled older man who'd been working at the DC US Attorney General's office for as long as anyone could remember, shook his head. "It's a mess, Leon. If word of the decertification of your lab gets out, every one of your cases going back for years will be examined. The only thing that might stop this would be to get the lab back up and running under the strictest conformance to the board's standards, and to have an independent panel of auditors review every case to ensure the analysis is sound. That's gonna take time and resources. Of everything I've heard about this whole matter, that is the biggest danger to your agency. You've got to move, and move fast on this."

Vance shook his head, looking tired and frustrated. Slamming his hand down hard on the table, he hissed, "Damn it to hell." Rising he paced around briefly before sitting back down heavily. "Ok. Ok. I'll put a deputy director on this immediately."

Gabe spoke up, "Leon, the audit showed that the work Ms. Sciuto did was overwhelmingly excellent, and at times brilliant. Her reputation in the field backs that up. I'm betting that you won't find any other cases with problems. The issue with the domestic terrorist case isn't with the data that is being used by the prosecution – it's an unrelated administrative matter. The other case, the Hernandez murder - I'm not familiar with it, but there isn't even a case associated with it. The forensics analysis Ms Sciuto did was for use in a class she was asked to give by the Mexican government to students at one of their universities. Whatever problems there are with that analysis has no bearing on any NCIS case. And it sounds like it's possible to correct the violations on this analysis. Don't know what the time frame is that has to be met, but if Abby can correct the deficiencies in that analysis, then that closes the door on the one remaining 'major' issue the audit found. If a thorough audit of the forensics work Abby has done finds no other violations, and if the lab is brought into conformance with the boards standards, wouldn't that leave us with no exposure legally?"

Pat nodded thoughtfully. "Good thinking, Gabe. No loose ends. Nothing relating to criminal prosecutions. If the lab can be brought up to snuff before the board can start working on the decertification process…" Idly doodling on a legal pad before him while running the scenario through his head, nodding occasionally, Pat finally cleared his throat, "I think you're onto something there Gabe."

Glancing at Gibbs, Gabe said quietly, "If that's the case, _and_ if Abby takes advantage of the diversion program, _and_ if legal doesn't charge her with any federal crimes, _and_ she completes whatever discipline the Director has in mind for disobeying his direct orders and for failing to do her job properly, to fire her might raise red flags the agency doesn't want raised…."

Vance sat back looking at Gabe thoughtfully.

Pat added, "The assault on DiNozzo is being dealt with appropriately at the local level."

Glancing at Gibbs, who still had not spoken, Vance finally said, "Ok. I'll take it under advisement." Rising, he held out his hand to the District Attorney, "Thank you, Ms. Vale, for your help with this matter. My office will be in touch with yours shortly regarding any federal charges against Ms. Sciuto."

Rising and taking the offered hand, she nodded, "I'll be waiting. Good luck, Director. I suspect you'll need some before this all shakes out." Nodding at the others at the table, she picked up her briefcase and left.

Settling down, Vance picked up another folder, "Ok, let's continue with this meeting. We still have a lot to get through…."


	16. Chapter 16

(peeking out apprehensively) I apologize profusely for taking so long to get this chapter out. RL has been awful, and I've only been able to work on this chapter in little bits and pieces as a result. Any breaks in logic, skips of continuity, general story flow, and bad grammar are my distracted fault. I hope the chapter isn't a total disappointment to those who have been so patiently waiting. The bulk of the talking is over with by the end and good stuff is coming. I wish I could promise the next chapter soon – I will try my best – but RL is still out there throwing conniptions and fits. I'm afraid I've cleaned this place out of anything resembling chocolate, but as soon the truckloads I ordered arrives, I'll be sending it out to everyone by the handfuls.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 16

As Gibbs rose to refill his coffee mug, Vance looked to Dr. Harrison. "Your report on DiNozzo - and keep it brief – the agents have gone through enough psych evals over the years and I don't have the patience, time, or desire to dredge through old material."

Harrison opened the next folder. He briefly scanned his notes before moving on. "Agent DiNozzo is an interesting individual. Trying to pin him down…well, he has more ways to avoid answering questions as I can find ways to ask. He's an expert at manipulating a conversation, and at revealing nothing while saying…well, I suspect you already know this."

Gibbs directed a stare at the man, giving him one minute to get his spiel out before he shut him up. It was bad enough listening to him dissect Abby –no way Harrison would survive picking apart his team if he couldn't start using some common sense, or better yet, just shut up.

Harrison faltered slightly under Gibbs glare, before continuing, "Agent DiNozzo is very good at reading people, at intuiting what is driving them, and can connect with people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, draw them out, and extract information," he made a sour face, then added, "as my colleagues and I can personally attest. The various social and cultural milieus he experienced while growing up and in his work have given him the familiarity and skills to work comfortably in a broad variety of situations - which probably explains why he excels at undercover work."

Putting his coffee mug down a little harder than necessary, Gibbs interjected, "Are you going to tell us anything we don't already know, Doctor?"

Vance shook his head, "Gibbs, I don't need you scaring off every doctor from Psych Services. I'm running out of people from that department who are willing to work with you. Sit and listen. _Quietly_."

Harrison eyed Gibbs nervously before continuing, "Agent DiNozzo's not a concrete thinker – someone who sees things in a more structured way - but rather he's intuitive. He can take disparate pieces of information, observations, ideas and toss them in a virtual pot, mix, and come up with something new and different. He will never match Agent McGee's skills in technology, but Agent McGee will never match his ability to think creatively. I'm afraid Special Agent David has a hard time even understanding how Agent DiNozzo is put together, much less valuing his abilities."

Gibbs leaned in, hand twitching with the effort to not head-smack the man into speeding up. He pointedly stared at his watch. There was a reason he detested most shrinks, and this guy personified it. _Get to the point!_

Freezing until the director motioned with a hand, Harrison wondered how much he could pare off his findings – anything to get away from Gibbs. "Agent DiNozzo's driven principally by a desire to make a positive difference in this world. His work life, filled with people driven by base emotions, takes its toll on him though, and he struggles at times with feeling overwhelmed with distrust and futility. You need to monitor him for burnout."

Gibbs refrained from growling by rising to get a fresh cup of coffee. Leaning against the credenza, he remained standing instead of returning to the table.

"He views Agent Gibbs as his most important role-model, and as a teacher. Unfortunately he sees himself often failing to meet Gibbs' high standards, and it affects his self-confidence. There are indications that he actually fears Gibbs' reactions at times, even though he hides it well. His…"

Moving forward to hit the table with a fist, Gibbs broke in, disgusted, "Enough. DiNozzo has never shown any sign of being afraid of anyone. He knows I have his back."

Raising an eyebrow, Gabe asked quietly, "Does he?"

Gibbs turned to stare angrily at Gabe, "What the hell does that mean?"

Unfazed, Gabe leaned forward, speaking levelly, "Does he know? Yes, he's an excellent agent, adept and skilled, innovative, driven and disciplined. But, you have created a team environment that is structurally wide and flat. There's you at the helm, and then there's everyone else. And you've fostered competition between your agents within that environment. Each is determined to push themselves as hard as possible to prove they are the most valuable, that you will judge they are the best agent on your team. Which implies that the others are found wanting. I'm not saying that their priorities aren't to do the absolute best to solve the cases and bring justice to those who deserve it, but this competition to be the best is never far from the surface."

Vance watched in fascination as Gibbs leaned into Gabe's personal space, "Are you telling me how to run my team, Agent Jonas?" Harrison took the opportunity to scoot even further away from Gibbs, while Garcia watched the interplay with relaxed and amused interest.

Quite familiar and practiced with interrogation tactics, Gabe calmly continued, "No. Just pointing out how the dynamics work at times." He motioned to Gibbs' chair with his chin. "Sit down Gibbs. You know how you run your team, but maybe there are some subtle consequences you're too close to notice."

Gibbs narrowed his eyes, studying Gabe. If it'd been anyone else but him, Gibbs would have brushed him off, but his gut was telling him that this man wasn't out to screw his team over. He made far more sense that that idiot shrink. Reaching a decision, he settled back down, sipping his coffee, "Go on."

"Tony understands the dynamics, and uses his skills to try and balance out the extremes of the interplay between the three of them. Unfortunately, because David especially is very strong willed and independent and McGee is stubborn and passive-aggressive, Tony isn't always successful. And when things start spinning and wobbling more than usual, he's usually the target of his two team-mates reactions to this volatility."

"You have your reasons for creating this flat structure. It clearly gets results since your team does have the highest solve rate in the organization. However, the down side is a lack of differentiation between your SFA's position and those of the other two agents. They see their positions as equal to his. This has not only created a lack of respect for the SFA position, but you've hampered your SFA's ability to do his job. You've set him up to fail."

Gibbs watched Gabe silently, expressionlessly, thinking hard. Vance sat back looking intrigued and thoughtful.

With a glance at Harrison who was watching with rapt horror, Gabe continued, hoping the doctor would keep quiet. "You have left this structure intact, and you've let the team dynamics continue without interference for the most part. I suspect that Tony has come to believe that this structure – the challenge and one-upmanship between the three of them - is what you want, and he's been trying to make it work. When you disagree with or discipline your SFA in front of his teammates, you undermine the authority he needs to do his job, and you encourage his teammates' disrespect. And when you openly permit it without interfering….as Sir Thomas More observed once, _qui tacet consentire videtur_, he who is silent seems to consent. So, Gibbs, does Tony know you have his back?"

Rising, Gibbs filled his coffee cup again, and returned to his seat. "Ok, you have my attention. I don't necessarily agree with it though. Tony's not some wall-flower. When they step out of line, he's fully capable of putting them in their places."

Nodding, Gabe said, "He definitely can and has on occasion, but his need to do that shouldn't be the norm. The lack of respect from his teammates is slowly wearing him down. He's also very much aware of the opinion you have of him, Director. He's disappointed in his team's inability or unwillingness to see what he brings to the team, and in this instance is angry that it's led them to ignore their duty to back him up. He doesn't trust them now, and is concerned for the safety of other agents they might work with. And he's worried that if they can't understand him, someone they work with everyday, then what happens when they work with other personnel? What might happen when they decide to question them or fail to cover them while out in the field?"

Gibbs chewed on that. As much as he hated to admit it, there was a grain of truth in what Gabe had described. Deciding to mull over what Gabe had said later that night accompanied with bourbon and heavy duty sanding, he just wanted to get through the rest of what Gabe had to say right now. And maybe he'd need to sit down with DiNozzo and thrash this out – make it clear that he had permission to smack heads as much and often as needed to get the job done.

Vance was not only impressed with Gabe's ability to keep Gibbs from exploding; he actually managed to get him to listen. Without even glancing at Harrison, who he knew he'd have to placate later for easing him out of the discussion, he asked Gabe, who he knew had observed the psych evals, "So, the Royal Woods incident. What happened?"

Gabe smiled inwardly as he continued, happy he was able to keep Harrison from near death at Gibbs hands. The man was good at his job, but gave off the wrong energy and had no idea how to work with Gibbs. "With respect to the Royal Woods incident, Tony didn't report it because he felt it wasn't in the best interest of the team – i.e. he knew it might tear the team apart again. I also suspect there was an element of disbelief that they'd actually do something like that to anyone they were working with out in the field. And behind that I think you'll find he didn't want to find out if it were true. He made a puzzling comment – something about already having paid the 'price' once?" Gabe made finger-quotes in the air around the 'price'.

Gibbs knew exactly what DiNozzo had been alluding to, but it wasn't his story to tell. He was, however, unhappy that DiNozzo had even made the comment. Did Tony truly felt that McGee and David had screwed the partnership up to the point where he felt he couldn't work with them anymore – that he saw them as the moral equivalent of his old partner in Baltimore? Would he leave over what had happened? That worried Gibbs – a lot.

Vance looked approvingly at Gabe and finished with, "Any other observations?"

"Be careful. You'll lose him if you handle this wrong. Worse case, he'll leave law enforcement entirely because of trust issues if you put politics and expediency before the safety of others."

Harrison was torn between outrage at Gabe preempting him in his own area of expertise, and with relief that he wasn't in the line of fire. Trying to insert himself back into the conversation, he shuffled the papers before him and spoke up, "Well, those were insightful observations, Agent Jonas. Now, if…." As both Vance and Gibbs nailed him with glares, he swallowed and fell silent. Crap. He never had problems presenting his evaluations with any other Team Leader except Gibbs. Again, he swore to himself he'd stay as far from his team as humanly possible from now on.

Vance didn't remove his eyes from Harrison as he asked, "Bill?"

The grizzled man looked amused at the three of them as he added, "Nothing to add that you don't already know, Leon."

Nodding, Vance raised an eyebrow while eyeing the folders and papers in front of Harrison, "Your evaluation of Special Agent McGee?"

Swallowing his annoyance, Harrison swore to get through the next two evaluations without interruption. "Special Agent McGee seems to have the fewest issues of the three. He has a healthy self-respect, and is the most confident of his place here. He sees his skills as valued, useful, and believes he has the investigative edge on his colleagues because of his superior technical skills. Agent McGee feels recognized and admired for his talents, and confident that others can turn to him for assistance and he can deliver.

"Special Agent Gibbs is who he measures himself against, and admires his 'instincts', his discipline, and his drive to seek justice. In spite of his technical skills, he feels behind the curve in acquiring the experience and skills he sees in Gibbs, and that causes him to feel insecurity at times.

"He thinks highly of Special Agent David's talents, and admits she 'runs the show' more often than not when they're paired up out in the field; he feels she's his superior in field-craft, defensive and offensive skills, and has greater situational awareness. While he trusts her, he's is a bit wary about crossing her should push come to shove between the two of them.

"He tolerates Special Agent DiNozzo. He doesn't feel that Agent DiNozzo is any threat to him in job skills, and views him as an adequate, but not good, agent. He believes Agent DiNozzo is unsure of his ability to measure up to the rest of the team and tries to cover it by distraction. McGee thinks DiNozzo will stay where he is as long as he can - just being on Agent Gibbs team is an ego booster for DiNozzo."

Harrison could feel Gibbs studying him like he was a bug under a microscope. Harrison had no doubts now about the rumors about Gibbs' infamous interrogation techniques – no one in their right mind could stand up to…to that _inspection_. How could anyone endure working with this man? He glanced at the other men present. Vance looked calm and in control as always, but he could see hints of amusement in Gabe and Garcia's expressions as they watched the two of them. He wavered between incredulous and anger – how dare they find this man's actions grounds for humor?

Seeing Harrison's irritation rising, Gabe eased in again. "As far as why Agent McGee turned the playback off during the Royal Woods investigation, he admits embarrassment at not thinking about leaving Tony without backup. It was a simple assignment, no challenge, no reason to be on his guard. He admitted he viewed the assignment as a way to get a bit of 'downtime' in the middle of a case. When Agent David urged him to 'shut Tony up', he was concerned about the recording equipment possibly failing, but otherwise didn't think twice about turning the playback off." He finished with what he felt was the most damning part of McGee's evaluation, "While he did acknowledge that technically he shouldn't have left Agent DiNozzo without a way to summon backup, he felt it was a non-issue, especially when nothing untoward happened."

At this last sentence, Gibbs' eyes narrowed dangerously, recalling his conversation with McGee after the first interviews. "He still doesn't think there was anything wrong with what he did?"

Gabe felt for Gibbs, knowing how hard it was hearing this from someone who should know better. "I suspect Gibbs that he might be embarrassment at his actions, but hasn't reached the point yet of just admitting what he did was wrong."

Gibbs loosened his grip on his coffee mug before it shattered. He was going to kick McGee's ass from one end of the gym to the other until he straightened his thinking up. Or fired him if he didn't admit his screw up before Gibbs' patience ran out. Whichever came first.

Gabe and Garcia had nothing to add to the doctor's report, so Vance asked Harrison to give his report on the last member of Gibbs' team.

Knowing Ziva was the agent who least fit the general profile of an ideal agent, and that she was the most problematic of the three involved in this episode, Harrison sent a silent prayer up to get through this quickly so he could make his escape.

"Special Agent David is the most interesting person on your team, Gibbs. She has a unique background, and brings a different perspective to her job. Her training and education is radically different than that of anyone raised in America, and it's difficult at times to compare her performance here with what was expected of her when she worked for Mossad.

"Agent David is very self-confident. The training, the experience, her background growing up in a country that, for all intents and purposes, is on a constant war-footing – all have contributed to her distinctive view of the problems and remedies encountered on the job.

"She's used to working with little, if any, oversight, and with far fewer restrictions. Working in an environment with close supervision is something she's had to learn how to handle. In Israel, she had far more power and access to resources, and at times she acutely feels the restrictions on her activities and resents having to rein in her inclination to do what's needed, right or wrong, to get the job done. I might even suggest that she feels entitled to more freedom and deference than other agents because she is the daughter of the Director of Mossad. "

Vance shifted uneasily at this, his expression hinting of his refusal to even consider the idea. No one received preferential treatment because of who they were related to – not on his watch.

"Agent David believes that her talents aren't always appreciated or utilized, and thinks that she isn't used as much as she should be. She mastered the skills she needed for her work with Mossad, and thinks that since she's always been successful, she can nail down new skills here as easily. When this doesn't always work as she expects, she can get quite testy.

"She greatly admires and respects Agent Gibbs, and feels a close bond between them; she feels as if he is filling a fatherly role in her life. Whatever he expects of her, she's willing to provide, and strives to make him proud of her. She will only take orders without question from Agent Gibbs, and there is little in her evaluation that suggests that this will change.

"Her respect for Agent McGee's talents is high. Outside of Agent Gibbs, she feels McGee personifies what an NCIS agent should be like. There's a sister-brother type of friendship between the two of them. She likes to partner with him because she can, and often does take the lead role, and he willingly relinquishes the position to her.

"Agent David's view of Agent DiNozzo is…interesting. In general, she views him as a lightweight - limited in skills, insight, and experience. She has him pegged as a street cop who's 'reached his level of incompetence' as she quoted from something she read once. It's her belief that he's in the SFA's position because Gibbs, at one time, saw something in him and had hoped he could train him to be a decent agent. Once it was clear that DiNozzo doesn't have what it takes, she thinks Gibbs simply tolerates him. She admits being puzzled over why Gibbs doesn't get rid of DiNozzo, but realizes there are some things shared between them that will probably remain a mystery to her.

"The one thing I am certain of is that she's not going to change her opinion of her teammates, her response to them, or her self-assessment. She felt justified in turning the audible playback off during the assignment since it was Agent DiNozzo who was out in the field. The assignment was less important than if - well, it was an assignment that might have been tasked to a cop." Harrison scowled at his own words, looking faintly perturbed. "I believe a few more sessions with Agent David might be in order."

Vance queried Gabe, "Your thoughts?"

Settling back, Gabe sighed. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Doctor Harrison. Special Agent David has some issues that should be dealt with before she is released to full duties. Her loyalty to you, Gibbs, is admirable, but it'll cause problems…has caused problems. Her first inclination when there is trouble is to look to you. When you're not present, her next inclination is to default to her Mossad training, and there's the crux of her problem in so many areas. If she cannot find her way past this, she will continue to cause problems. She has to be weaned from you Gibbs."

Vance said, "Gibbs, you're being too quiet. Your take on this?"

As he expected, Gibbs was trying to keep his team intact. "The team needs her, Leon."

"So you insist. But how are you going to deal with her part in the incident, and how are you going to make sure it won't happen again? Right now, I'm inclined to agree with the concerns about her readiness to work in the field. And if she can't bring herself to work with anyone other than you, then we have a much bigger problem to deal with."

When Gibbs refused to answer, Vance turned to Garcia. "Bill?"

"Agent David is a disaster waiting to happen. If she is to be salvaged, she needs to straighten up her act."

"Gabe, your thoughts on Special Agent McGee?"

Gabe replied thoughtfully, "I think he needs some seasoning. He's smart and it won't take long for him to understand where he needs to buck up and get a clue. And after this experience, I doubt he'll be quite as willing to follow Agent David in dubious directions."

"Gibbs?"

"He's a good agent, Director. He's smart. He'll figure it out."

"Bill?"

"He made a stupid mistake, and I think he's man enough to own up to it, and make sure it doesn't happen again, but he clearly needs help getting there."

"And your thoughts on DiNozzo?"

"He's a victim here, Leon. However, he was the SFA in charge at the time, and there has to be some accountability for his lack of follow-up when he learned of the playback being off."

"Doctor Harrison, your recommendations for the three Agents?"

Trying to recover some of his lost credibility with the men at the table, he straightened up and looked serious. "Agent DiNozzo….I wish I could say that more sessions with him would be helpful, but I'm afraid all it would do is drive my own staff to quit the field in despair. He's cleared for field work.

"Agent McGee needs to own up to his role in what happened and show an understanding of why it happened. Letting him slide on this will leave him with the belief that what happened has no consequences. I won't sign off on his return to field work until this happens.

"Agent David…I am concerned about her ability to function safely out in the field. She needs to show insight into why she did what she did, and she needs to move past her lack of ability to follow someone lead other than Agent Gibbs. Right now, I can't, in good conscience, allow her back in the field."

Vance nodded, and rising, held out his hand to the doctor. "Thank you for your expertise and insight, Doctor Harrison. Can I expect your written evaluations in the next day or so?"

Realizing he was being excused, Harrison rose, shaking the Director's hand. Gathering up his files, he replied, "I'll have them to you by the end of the week." With a curt nod to the others, he made his way as quickly as he could out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Gibbs visibly relaxed. Refilling his cup, he settled back down. Gabe shook his head, eyeing him, "Gibbs, if I drank as much coffee as you, I'd be crawling the walls. Being the sane person I am though, I won't suggest you cut back some."

Gibbs gave him a half-smile while sipping at his fresh cup. "Smart man."

Vance sat also after refilling his own cup. "Now that that is out of the way, let's get down to business. Gabe, I'd like you to remain since you seem to be able to translate what the doctor said into Gibbs-speak."

"I've already spoke to Bill about options that pass legal muster, and have done some initial inquries. Here's what I propose…"


	17. Chapter 17

Sorry it's so short, but better than nothing, right? Abby is next, and won't be too happy by the end. It's a patty treat week for all you wonderful reviewers. Peanut butter patties, peppermint patties, fried ice cream patties, s'more patties, frozen yogurt patties, and surprise-inside patties! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 17

The following Monday morning, Tony bemusedly led his five charges down the stairs from the mezzanine feeling like a momma duck leading her ducklings. The entire floor had grown quiet as everyone stopped to watch, curious. Slowing to a stop on the landing half way down the stairs, Tony looked out across the room. With a sigh, knowing he'd be bombarded with questions about what had happened if he didn't address the snooping and prying now, he addressed the watchers, waving his hand back towards the five young spit-and-polished agents behind him, "Baby probies, guys. Babysitting them until they're assigned out. Be nice. No petting, no taking them home overnight, limit the treats, and try to minimize the dents - we want them going out in factory-fresh condition."

Behind him, the five looked at each other sheepishly. They'd arrived this morning in varying states of apprehension and worry, the grapevine hinting they'd be assigned to the infamous Gibbs – he who ate probies for breakfast by the six-pack, spit out their bones, and picked his teeth clean afterwards with a dagger. Instead, they found themselves assigned to Gibbs' SFA as contingency agents as they waiting for their final assignments. DiNozzo has a reputation as an airhead goofball who hit on anything in a skirt, which left the five confused. Could they still end up dealing with Gibbs? And what would they do with an agent like DiNozzo supervising them? Would they be left on their own? Have to cover for a frat-boy agent who partied all night? Do the senior agent's work while he trolled the women staffers for dates? Looking at each other, they could see they all had same questions and concerns about this man.

As Tony led them the rest of the way down the stairs, leaning on the cane to keep as much weight as possible off his right leg, he wondered how this assignment could be considered punishment. The written reprimand he understood, but babysitting probies? On top of his regular duties? Ok, depending on how much time they needed, he could see his free time evaporating. It was going to be a hard few weeks ahead. And he still hadn't heard about McGee or David. How much longer would they be out? If the team was being moved back onto the rotation schedule, they'd either have to come back, or TADs brought in. Two new TADS on top of babysitting five shiny new probies? This could get messy.

Leading his charges into the unassigned area next to the bullpen, he turned to the group piling to a stop behind him. "Ok, here's the area you'll be working in for now." He eyed them – three women, two men – all in their 20s, all fit, all bright-eyed, and all so new they squeaked. Send them out in the field right now and they'd be munched up by the first dirtbag who turned on them.

Pointing at the first woman, he said, "You're designated Alpha for now. We'll work on a better name for each of you later. You're in charge of rounding up five desks and chairs. First floor, to the right of the rear entrance. Pick the five best you can find and have them moved up here asap. The ol' codger in charge, Mack, is fond of donuts."

Pointing at the first man, "Bravo. Office supplies. Second floor. The lead down there is Barb and will be your first assignment in diplomacy – make it successful or you'll all be sitting here with whatever you can liberate from your fellow office-mates in the way of desk supplies. Bad way to make friends on this floor since most are armed, so don't fail."

Nodding to the next woman, "Charlie. Computers. Sub-basement. And sweet-talk a tech into hooking them up. Coordinate with Alpha or you'll end up sitting on the floor to work on those computers. You'll also need a large plasma display for your office area." Tony pointed at the two in the bullpen to illustrate. "Bypass the lead down there and ask for Jill. Take flowers – mums preferably."

To the last woman, "Delta….you've got an especially difficult task. Phones. Tele-communications is on the second floor. The lead down there is an agent wanna-be and can be a bit difficult if he thinks you're talking down to him. Let that be a hint about the approach to take. If you get on his wrong side, it'll take a Gibbs intervention to get working phones, and no one wants that, so suck up to the guy big-time."

To the final probie, he said, "Echo, your task is the necessary extras – trash cans, filing cabinets, copier, network printer, and stock up on general supplies – copy paper, things like that and a cabinet for them. Backup your partners. And you're the grub-master for your team. Make sure they eat."

Addressing them all as he looked them over, "Ok, you've got your assignments for the day. By 17:00, I want a working office set up here. It will take all your cunning, charm, diplomacy, bartering skills, bribery, and outright trickery to get it done. Failure is not an option."

He'd take their files home with him tonight to read through, but for now, he thought, let's see what they can do. Shooing them off, he said, "Go forth! Do things!"

Without waiting, wanting them to figure things out for themselves, he turned to go back to his desk and noticed Gibbs standing next to it, watching with amusement. As Tony stopped next to him, he asked, "Sink or swim?"

With a smirk of his own, he replied, "Initiative, investigation, problem solving, innovation, sneakiness, and skullduggery. I'll go through their files tonight and work up a plan to loosen them up and take some of that bright and shiny newness off."

Glancing at Gibbs, he asked, "This," he motioned towards the probies, "is punishment? I expected the reprimand, but not the probies."

With a snort, Gibbs looked at Tony, "I suspect Vance has been looking where to park the new agents fresh from FLETC while he determines where to assign them. You just happen to come along at the right time."

"But, he usually farms them out to various teams while he works on their final assignments."

Gibbs nodded, sipping his coffee. "Yup."

"So, why would he change now?"

Glancing around the room, Gibbs answered, "He's letting the rest of the agency know that he considers you up to the task of supervising and mentoring other agents."

Blinking, Tony thought about that for a moment, "But, that's secondary to working on cases, right? It isn't like they're a real team…"

Gibbs slapped his head gently, "Exactly. You're tasked with growing the baby agents up while still carrying on with your regular job. What's that tell you?"

"That I'm gonna be real busy for a while?"

With yet another amused snort, Gibbs nodded, "Coffee run. C'mon."


	18. Chapter 18

Finally ready to post this chapter. Pesky thing took a while to wrestle it into shape. I went on a spree for all you wonderful reviewers and baked up a whole sideboard of goodies. If you can imagine it, you'll find it there for your pleasure. Thank you everyone for taking the time to let me know how much you are enjoying this story. All booboos are my bad.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 18

The sounds of muffled yelling started almost inaudibly, but became louder until everyone turned to see what was happening. As the back elevator opened, Abby stormed out, pushing aside the agent who'd been escorting her and heading straight for Gibbs' desk.

"Gibbs! GIBBS! What is going on?" She stomped her foot, hands clenched in fists, shouting angrily. "There are…are strangers in my lab! They're tearing it apart! All my babies are gone! They won't let me into my own lab!"

Finding the bullpen empty, she twisted around looking for any of the team, "Gibbs! What is going on? I'm gonna boil whoever is messing with my lab alive from the inside out! I'm gonna turn them green and make their tongue peel and their eyes explode! They're gonna regret the day they were born! Gibbs! DiNozzo! McGee! Where is everyone?"

Two of the probies were working in the area next to the bullpen and had stopped to gawk at Abby, taking in the skimpy Goth attire, her colorful makeup, and crazy out of control yelling and disruption. One whispered to the other, "Who is that? I thought Gibbs was supposed to be the one to watch out for."

Shrugging, the second one pulled the other back and away from the area. "I dunno but I'm not gonna stick around to find out. Let's get out of here." Both disappeared down the back corridor.

Someone must have called the Director's office because Vance appeared, looking irritated, and called down to Abby who was pacing from one end of the bullpen to the other talking and gesturing to herself, obviously waiting for Gibbs. "Ms. Sciuto. My office, please."

The agent who'd been escorting Abby winched as Vance met his eyes. "Sorry, sir. She wanted to pick up some personal items from the lab. I didn't know it was being remodeled…" Vance waved him away with a nod.

Staring at Vance with narrowed eyes, she clomped up the stairs and into his office. Spinning around to face the director, she spat out, practically vibrating with frustration, "Leon, what is going on in my lab? Who are those people? They've….they've kidnapped my babies! Make them get out of my lab! Where are my babies? They've been moved and it's going to take forever to get them running and happy again. You can't just move them you know. They have their idiosyncrasies and each one needs special pampering and handling. They're probably all traumatized and…" It finally dawned on her that the director was not happy. Not at all. She sputtered to a halt, uncertainty replacing anger, "Director?"

With a sigh, knowing this was not going to be a comfortable meeting for Abby, Vance motioned to the conference table where a man was standing, having just risen from his seat. He was in his early 50s maybe, ramrod straight posture, gray business suit, wire-rimmed glasses, close-cropped graying hair, and a sharp direct gaze. The director made introductions, "Mr. Davies, this is Ms. Abby Sciuto. Ms. Sciuto, this is Mr. Edward Davies, the new manager of the Forensics Department."

Abby stood, mouth frozen in an 'O', eyes staring at the man. Manager? What? She looked at the hand the man was holding out, then shook her head bewildered, "Who is this man, Director? There is no manager of…" Looking up at Vance, anxious, she whispered, almost to herself, "Gibbs….where is Gibbs?"

The director winced inwardly; this was not starting out well. "Please be seated." He guided Abby to sit and poured her a glass of water.

Taking a seat himself, Vance smoothed out his tie and started. "Ms. Sciuto, I've asked you here to inform you of the findings of the I.A. investigation into the Royal Woods assignment – specifically, your part in the analysis of the recordings taken that day, the specific violations of policy and regulations that we have determined you committed, and the disciplinary action we will impose as a result. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them as we proceed."

Abby stared at the director, half torn between apprehension and indignation over the whole situation. Biting her lower lip, she asked, "Where is Gibbs? Why isn't he here?"

"Gibbs is not involved because he is not in the chain of command for your position, nor is he involved in the investigation. There is no reason for his presence." Raising his eyebrows, he stated, "If you wish to have an attorney present, we can postpone this meeting until you can make arrangements..."

Abby shook her head, "No! I…I just wondered where Gibbs was. He…" She trailed off, taking a deep breath and bracing herself. "Ok, give it to me. I can take it."

Referring to a report before him, Vance nodded, "You were tasked with analyzing voice recordings of residents of the Royal Woods neighborhood as part of the investigation into the murder of Commander Daniels in October 2010. After completing and documenting the analysis, you signed your name on the final report indicating the analysis was complete and accurate."

"Subsequent analysis by an outside lab found discrepancies in the transcript portion of the report. Specifically, a conversation between Special Agents David and McGee was missing, and there was no reference to the approximately 118 minutes their mike and audio playback were off."

Abby squirmed. "The analysis of the residents' voice recordings compared to the voice message was complete and accurate! The other material was not relevant to the investigation, so I didn't include it. It was extraneous material, Leon."

Sitting back and clasping his hands in front of him on the table, Vance studied her. After a moment, he said, "You included the testing of the equipment by Agent McGee, Ms. Sciuto. That was extraneous material." He paused, waiting for a response from her. When she just glared at him, he continued, "The conversation between Agents David and McGee expressing their dissatisfaction with listening to Agent DiNozzo talk with the residents, and their intention to discontinue monitoring Agent DiNozzo's channel – that _is_ something you should have documented and reported to me or Agent Gibbs."

Abby nodded, silent, hands fisting the fabric of her miniskirt tightly.

"Directly after this conversation, their mikes and audio playback were switched off. They were not able to hear the audio playback of Special Agent DiNozzo's channel."

Davies interrupted. "There is no evidence this was caused by a malfunction?"

Vance shook his head at the question, "The equipment was tested before and after the assignment and was in good working order."

Putting the report down, Vance leaned forward, his voice intense, "Ms. Sciuto, you have been trained on agency policies and regulations for field operations. You were aware that the actions that Special Agents McGee and David took that day left Agent DiNozzo with no way to summon help if needed. You knew this was a violation of NCIS policy that states fieldwork is done in teams of at least two agents to ensure operational safety, and you knew it was your duty to report this violation. You've stated you thought this was acceptable because nothing had happened as a result. Is this correct?"

Abby nodded almost imperceptibly, fuming still, but managed to keep her comments to herself, her expression a mix of anger and chagrin.

Sitting back with a silent sigh, Vance changed the line of questioning. "I gave you a direct order, twice in fact, to have no contact with other members of Agent Gibbs' team. You went that night to Agent DiNozzo's residence, confronted him, then assaulted him. Is that correct?"

Abby squeezed her eyes shut, and nodded, swallowing hard. That one she was at fault for, no question….and no excuse. Head bowed, she looked up from under her long black bangs, "I thought he should…" Frustrated, she stopped. In the back of her mind though, a small voice was getting louder, accusing her of being foolish and unfair and…wrong. She didn't want to hear it, tried to ignore it, but it was growing more insistent.

Davies voice broke into her thoughts, "You realize, Ms. Sciuto, the forensics laboratory here was going to be decertified because of your actions in this case."

That got a reaction from the forensic scientist. Her eyes popped open wide, startled and mad, "What?!"

Davies nodded, "Director Vance ordered an audit of your previous work by the IBC. They found two analyses with problems, this being one of them. We fortunately were able to correct them." He paused for emphasis. "They also have serious issues with how the lab was being run. We're in the process of bringing the lab up to standard, and implementing new laboratory procedures. There will be a final inspection at the end of this week, and I hope we pass. If not, the lab will lose its certification."

Vance hit the table hard with his fist, angry, "I don't need to tell you the legal problems that we will face should that happen, Ms. Sciuto. And I want to know how you let this happen in the first place since you knew about of these standards."

Abby stood, livid, "Those standards, Director, are almost never enforced one hundred percent! Some standards, yes, but not all of them! Investigators need to see the evidence, hear and see the results of tests. Unless it's hazardous, there's no reason to…to turn a lab into a…a…fortress!"

Davies started ticking off reasons, "Protection of evidence from tampering, inadvertent or otherwise. Protection of untrained personnel in the presence of hazardous materials. The possibility of the chain of evidence being broken – I recall reading a report in which you left the lab unattended and someone in the lab destroyed evidence, crucial evidence. There's a reason for those standards, and we will adhere to them from this point forward.

"The auditors found an instance when laboratory tests were conducted by untrained, uncertified personnel while you were away on an assignment. IBC auditors found a manual you had written to guide agents in conducting forensics analysis, and the security video of the lab showing the agents mixing chemicals and not getting the expected results. That could have been disastrous for them! Following that, additional video showed those same agents cleaning the lab without protective gear. What were you _thinking,_ Ms. Sciuto?"

Abby rolled her eyes, exasperated with what she was hearing. Turning back to the director, she sighed with annoyance, "Leon…"

Vance broke in, "'_Director_', Ms. Sciuto. This is business." He continued, "There have been changes made. _If_, and I repeat _if_ you remain employed at NCIS, you will accept these changes and work diligently to implement them."

Abby stared at him, not quiet believing what she was hearing. They couldn't do this. It was her lab. She'd worked hard to make it one of the top forensics labs in the agency….in the country even. Where was Gibbs? He needed to tell the director to stop. Gibbs should have fixed this before it ever got this far!

Vance took a deep breath to calm down and pointed at her chair, indicating she should reseat herself. He hated days like this.

"Ms Sciuto, I know this is hard for you, but you are on very thin ice right now." He passed a packet of paperwork to her, then opened his own copy. "These are the sanctions that will be imposed. I suggest you make yourself familiar with them."

Abby sat glaring at Vance, refusing to open the packet before her. Across the table, Davies looked between the two, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. He'd not run across someone quite so stubbornly opinionated before, and couldn't help but wonder how long Vance was going to let this go on.

Stone-faced, Vance stated,"First off, Ms. Sciuto, if you are found guilty of assaulting Special Agent DiNozzo, you will be fired. If the lab is decertified, you will be fired and will be subject to additional legal sanctions. In either case, your security clearance will be revoked and you will be barred from further employment with any federal law enforcement agency – probably any law enforcement agency, period."

At Vance's harsh words, Abby lost some of her anger, slumping slightly. That wouldn't happen; Gibbs wouldn't let it happen.

"The other sanctions we discuss here are suspended until your criminal case is adjudicated. Some powerful people have pled your case and have made a convincing argument to give you a second chance. We are willing to give you a chance to redeem yourself. This is a rare opportunity and I hope you understand its significance. No guarantees though. You will receive one, and only one, chance to demonstrate you have learned your lesson from this whole mess, and can be trusted to do an accurate and thorough job. If you should fail in any way, you will be summarily dismissed."

"The first part of this document outlines the specific policies and regulations you violated. We can go through them one by one, but I think we're both familiar with them already. You failed to perform the duties of your job. You intentionally omitted parts of your analysis. You failed to report a serious violation of agency policy by not reporting David's and McGee's activities during the Royal Wood assignment. You failed to run your lab in a manner consistent with the standards required by the International Board of Criminology. And you disobeyed a direct order."

Might as well get the next part of bad news over with, Vance thought. "A forensics department has been created. Mr. Davies has been hired to manage it. I'll let him explain further."

Ed Davies had been watching Abby closely during the meeting. He had plenty of experience managing eccentric lab personnel and independent-minded computer technicians, and what he'd seen so far slotted Abby solidly in middle of "eccentric oddities". Managing such individuals was a balancing act - too much imposed conformity caused rebellion and stultified creative thinking; too little led to just the sort of problems he was seeing here. Building a fence around her was going to be a challenge, especially with Gibbs protecting her. It would take hard work, but she could earn back the trust she'd lost with the agency. But she couldn't start until she acknowledged her wrongdoings and accepted the consequences.

"The forensics department will consist of six forensics scientists, and a technical writer/librarian. The lab is being redesigned to restrict access to authorized personnel – authorized meaning certified forensic scientists. There will be a receiving area where evidence will be submitted for analysis, and a separate presentation area for reporting analysis findings to the investigators. Each forensic scientist will work a regular 8-hour shift, and the lab will be staffed 24/7. You'll be one of six scientists assigned to the lab.

"All applicable IEEE, ANSI, and OSHA laboratory safety standards will be followed. As such, there will be restrictions on the attire of personnel working in the lab. Casual business attire is the standard. One inch height maximum for shoe soles, no sandals, no mini-skirts, no shorts, no dog collars or wrist bands, no scarves or ties, hair nets for long hair, no sleeves longer than the wrists, no bracelets, no necklaces that loop more than two inches from the neck, no rings while in the lab. Eye protection or a face shield will be required at all times. Any chemical analysis that can generate toxic gasses will be done under a negative pressure vapor hood. Lab coats will be worn and fastened up the front at all times while in the lab.

"No personal belongings will be allowed in the lab proper. No visiting by non-working staff will be allowed. No eating, no drinking, no beverages will be allowed at all. One or two small personal photos will be allowed at workstations in the outer office, but no other personal belongings. Workstations will be shared between two or three scientists working on different shifts. The lab will be under continuous monitoring by building security for safety reasons.

"When you're ready to return to work…if you return to work here…we'll discuss these things in greater detail, Ms. Sciuto."

Vance knew this would be a huge change for Abby, but it had to be done. Things could not continue as before – the risks of decertification and legal challenges were too great. He hoped Abby would see that after she calmed down.

Vance turned to the next page in the packet. "The following sanctions will be imposed as disciplinary action for disobeying my direct order to have no contact with Gibbs' team. You will be suspended without pay for one month. You will be on probation for eighteen months, and will have your pay during this time docked by twenty percent. Your work will be reviewed and audited randomly during this time.

"Your sanctions for violating NCIS policy and regulations - you will be required to retake and pass all relevant forensics certification exams. Additionally, you'll be required to review all related agency policy and regulation manuals and retake and pass the employment entry exams. Should you fail any of these exams, we will review your continued employment options.

With a troubled sigh, Vance closed the folder and asked, "Do you have any questions, Ms. Sciuto?"

Burying her face in her hands, Abby shook her head. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs as everything sunk in, overwhelming her. How could this be happening? Her world was falling apart, all because of one small incident. She didn't understand. And where was Gibbs? Why didn't he stop all of this?

Vance spoke gently to the distraught woman, "We need your signature on the Disciplinary Action Form acknowledging you've received a copy before you leave. If you are found innocent of the assault charge, we will need your signature on the Acceptance of Work Improvement Plan before you can return to work. If you wishes to grieve the sanctions, follow the procedures as outlined in the agency personnel rules."

As Abby took the pen and blindly signed the Disciplinary Action Form, Vance summoned Gibbs. While Gibbs knew of this meeting, he wasn't looking forward to him seeing Abby so upset.

When Gibbs appeared, he took one look at Abby huddled miserably and crying, before turned slowly toward Vance who had made a tactically retreat to the far side of his desk...

A/N: Tony and his probies will be back in the next chapter. Did they make their deadline?


	19. Chapter 19

Sorry again for the long delay with this chapter - seems like there's never enough time for everything. This chapter was written in tiny bits as I squeezed out a few free minutes here and there so I hope it isn't too disjointed or screwy. Thanks again to Scouse and Binky for their feedback and sisterly commiseration on the unfairness of RL getting in the way of important things like writing. All goofs below happened while I wasn't looking and aren't my fault at all. Really. And for all you fantastically wonderful reviewers, we have platters of heavenly cinnamon and sugar toast sitting next to hot steaming mugs of rich, creamy hot cocoa. Marshmallows on the side.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 19

Tony stepped off the elevator with an armful of case files clutched tight to him, his cane in the other hand, carefully making his way to the bullpen. Two things caught his attention at the same time. First, the gaggle of probies was standing silent next to three desks and other equipment assembled in their "office area", all staring wide-eyed at the bullpen, silent.

The second thing was Abby sitting in Gibbs chair, sobbing, nose red, mascara melted down her cheeks, one pig-tail half undone, hiccupping, clutching a sodden handful of tissues, while she talked to Gibbs, or rather tried to talk to him since she was having problems putting more than two words together at a time.

Gibbs was sitting on the edge of the desk facing her, not saying anything, his expression a mix of sadness and mild frustration as he regarded her. He looked up as Tony stopped by his desk to drop off the armload of files. Before Gibbs could say anything to him, Tony made his way over to the probies, looking over what they'd come up with so far.

Three desks, five chairs, two computers, no phones, a large pile of supplies in the middle of one of the desks, and the remnants of box lunches and soft drinks scattered about. Not bad, he thought. They should have the makings of an office by the end of the week. But for now, he smiled at them, "Nice start, younglings." Looking at his watch, he told them, "Ok, you're done for now. Go home. Tomorrow be here by 0730, and lose the fancy duds. Casual, as in you're going to get dirty so wear some sturdy clothes and shoes. Now, dismissed! Shoo!"

With a last glance over their shoulders at the 'Gibbs & Abby' drama, they scrambled to gather their belongings and escape.

Standing in the middle of the half-assembled office, Tony looked solemnly at Gibbs, who returned his look with a half-smile and a nod towards Tony's desk. Easing back down into his chair, Tony straightened out the files and powered down his computer, preparing to leave for the day. Looking up, he met Abby's teary eyes. Though his gut twisted at the aftermath of her emotional meltdown, he couldn't bring himself to forgive her yet. The aching in his leg, the restricted desk duty, the empty desks in the bullpen, the feeling of betrayal and loss was crowding out any other feelings he had for her at the moment. Seeing fleeting expressions on her face of anger, frustration, sorrow, regret, indignation, stubbornness, and others he couldn't put a name to, he turned away to shuffle papers.

Gibbs pulled her attention from Tony, continuing their discussion, "Abby, you need to deal with the assault charge before anything. Worry about that for now."

Frustrated, she yelled at him, "Fix this, Gibbs! Make all this go away and things back to how they were before…" Glaring at Tony, she barely kept herself from pointing an accusing finger in his direction.

Gibbs shook his head. "I can't fix it, Abs."

"But, you can fix anything, Gibbs. Just march up there and tell Vance that he has to undo all of this."

Patience running out, he gently turned her head to him with a finger under her chin and met her gaze, serious, "Abby, I can't fix this. And if I could, I wouldn't. You got yourself in this mess, and you need to get yourself out. It's a harsh lesson, but one you need to own and work through yourself."

Abby gaped at him, mouth open, "What?"

The corners of his mouth turned up a fraction, "It's called tough love. And it's as hard on the 'parent' as it is the 'kid', believe me."

Standing, Abby yelled at him, "What?! I'm not some kid, Gibbs, that needs to be turned over your knee and spanked!"

"Then stop acting like one," he snapped, standing.

Grabbing her purse, she pushed past him furious. Stopping in front of Tony's desk, he finally looked up to meet her eyes. Glaring at him, she opened her mouth to yell at him also until he rose and picked up the cane, using it to take the weight off his bad leg. Biting her lower lip, she stared at his leg, her face slowly crumpling. They all stood frozen for several seconds, then Abby started to tremble. Dropping her purse, she leaned against the desk, trying to speak. Gibbs moved towards her, but she held up a hand to stop him.

She stood silent, lost in thought, as the seconds ticked away, Tony risked a glance at Gibbs, who stood in the middle of the bullpen watching Abby. He jerked his gaze back to Abby as she slowly straightened. Her bubbliness had disappeared and what was left was an Abby he hadn't seen in a long while, more contemplative, sad, and centered.

"You're right, Gibbs." Her chin trembled as she tried to control her tears. Facing Tony, she said, "I….I've been scared and didn't want to face what was happening. If something had happened to you, I would have….I don't think I would have been able to….Tony, I'm so sorry! I really thought that since nothing had happened – you and McGee and Ziva were back and safe – that it was ok to ignore what they'd done. The team - if this had come out, it might have been broken up again. I couldn't risk that happening!" She turned to include Gibbs, "I couldn't….I just couldn't."

Tears started running down her face again, but she didn't wipe them away. "I was confused when that IA weenie started asking questions. I couldn't figure out how they had found out." She drew in a shuddering breath, "I assumed it was you, Tony. And I couldn't understand why you were bringing it up after all this time. I thought you had been brooding, thinking about it, and for some reason you'd gone to IA instead of Gibbs. I didn't know you hadn't done anything."

Abby was gulping air again as her emotions overtook her. Gibbs wheeled a chair over and eased her down to sit, rubbing her back, trying to calm her. "Why didn't you come to me, Abby, when you found out what McGee and David had done?"

Shredding the tissues in her hands, Abby finally got herself back under control. She looked at Tony pleadingly, "I just wanted it to go away. Since no one said anything about it, I thought you guys had worked it out between yourselves, and I wasn't going to bring it up if that had happened."

Gibbs bent down, looking her in the eye, "Even if you'd thought that, you still should have come to me about it, Abby."

Biting her lower lip, Abby nodded, and waveringly said, "I know, Gibbs. I'm so sorry."

She turned to Tony, pleading silently for his forgiveness.

He looked at her for a long time, expressionless, feeling betrayed, and by default, blamed when anything went wrong. He thought Abby was his friend, and she would have at least asked him about it before assigning blame.

"So, you assumed that I'd gone to IA, knowing it would cause trouble for the team; that I would put my own desire for retribution ahead of the team's welfare. That I wouldn't have gone to Gibbs myself, or dealt with McGee and David directly as the team's Senior Field Agent." Tony spoke, making statements rather than questions.

He waited until Abby nodded.

"And you were so angry at what you thought I'd done, that you lost your temper and attacked me - again before asking me what had happened."

Abby nodded again. "Yes," she whispered, looking ashamed.

Feeling like he'd been kicked in the gut, Tony sank back down into his chair. Abby had been a good friend, he thought. How could she have thought that, even after knowing what McGee and Ziva had done? His stomach churned and he thought he was going to be sick. "Boss…" His voice was a plea, though he wasn't sure for what.

Gibbs saw the exhaustion and resignation slide over Tony. His voice was soft, soothing almost, as he told Tony, "Go home, DiNozzo. Get some rest." He knew he'd be spending the night at Tony's apartment after he got Abby safely home. Right now, Tony needed him more than Abby.

As Abby watched Tony enter the elevator, she crumpled inward, whispering "I'm so sorry, Tony." Turning to Gibbs she asked, "Will he ever forgive me?"

Gibbs didn't reply, just helped her to her feet and walked with her to the parking lot. Now that Abby had admitted her part in this mess, he hoped she would survive the consequences. At least she'd taken the first step in acknowledging what she'd done.

-000-

The next morning, Tony watched as three women were escorted up the stairs to Vance's office. As Gibbs entered the bullpen, Tony asked, "Is that them?"

Pausing Gibbs nodded, looking at them. "McGee will be in soon. I want you away from the bullpen for a while."

Rising to his feet, gesturing at three packed carryalls sitting on one of the probie's desks, he replied, "Just waiting on…." The elevator chimed, and the last probie, Delta, came charging out, breathless. "Here! I'm here! Sorry, I'm late, the parking lot was full and…"

Gibbs and Tony exchanged an amused glance, and Tony hobbled off toward his probies. Pointing at the bags, he said, "Grab. Follow." He headed off toward the elevator, trailed by five confused probies exchanging glances as they hurried to catch up before the elevator doors closed.

Watching Tony round up his….what? Litter of probies? Flock? Herd? Shaking his head at the slip into absurdness, he sighed silently, knowing that Tony's apparent good humor was due entirely to his excellent undercover skills. Under that exterior Tony was struggling to understand why his friends – _friends?_ - were anything but. His faith in his own judgment was seriously damaged. It was going to take a lot of hard work to convince him that the fault for all of this laid elsewhere. He cursed McGee and Ziva again for their role in this.

-000-

Pulling into a gravel parking area, Tony parked the van. Glancing at his watch, he smiled to himself. Two hours early…perfect. "Out. Head for that picnic table," he said pointing to one close by. Grabbing one of the bags, Tony pulled out several maps, tossing them onto the table, "Ok, kids, we're gonna be engaging in some very serious activity here, so you need to put your thinking caps on." Shaking out a map, he spread it out smooth.

One of the probies ran a hand across the map, and said in an incredulous voice, "I know what this is – a laser tag map. We're gonna….laser tag?"

Tony half-smiled, "You're gonna learn how to conduct a hunt for fugitives in those woods, capture them alive, and keep not only yourselves but any civilians, fellow agents, and other LEOs safe while you do it.

"You and your partner may be the only ones who will know what is going on, and everyone will be looking to you to tell them what to do. You may not have much time to pull a plan together. This will give you a chance to get your mind around what goes into working a situation like this. Better now when real lives won't be in danger to get through this experience than when it's for real."

Looking around at the serious faces, he suddenly grinned, "And have some fun while you're at it."

Bravo asked, "Who are we playing against?"

Eyes twinkling, Tony replied, "FBI probies just out of Quantico. And their leader is a jackass who needs his clock cleaned." Sobering down, he suddenly looked worried, "Do you all know what poison ivy looks like?" When Bravo and Echo shook their heads, he winced, pulled on gloves, pulled out a sealed bag of greenery, and said with absolute solemnity, "Look and learn then. If you tangle with it while you're out there, you're going to have to deal with a very annoyed doc back at the Yard. And I guarantee you right now - I won't be standing next to you for support." As he slapped the bag down in the middle of the map, everyone jumped back like it was a bomb. With a grin, Tony started pulling out more equipment from the bags – this was gonna be enjoyable. And if he could beat Slacks, all the better.

- 000 -

Vance greeted Metro DC Chief of Police Helen Case, and two of her officers, "Come in, please."

The Chief - older, short cropped gray hair, sharp dark eyes, and soft ebony skin that reminded Vance of a grade school teacher from his childhood - nodded, "Thank you, Director Vance."

Gibbs entered the office and nodded a greeting, "Helen, how you doing?"

The chief smiled, "Just fine, Jethro. Was this your idea?"

Smiling, Gibbs pointed his chin at Vance, "Collaboration."

Moving to the conference table, the Chief introduced her Commander, a stunning beauty of an Asian woman, "This is Commander Pandora Chao. She's been running the Vice and Narcotics Division for nine years now, and I think she can offer some help with your situation." There were handshakes all around, then the Chief introduced the second woman, Detective Mary Farmer, who in contrast with the Commander, was as plain and nondescript as a person could get - shoulder-length brown hair, observant hazel eyes, simply tailored clothes in muted colors, and little makeup or jewelry. Her handshake though was firm and sure. Interesting, Gibbs thought, noting how she was an exact opposite of DiNozzo – where he worked to stand out, she seemed to fade into the background. "Officers, this is Director Leon Vance, and Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the head of the Major Criminal Response Team."

Sitting down, Vance got right to the point, "I appreciate your willingness to agree to this idea, Chief. I think we both have a great deal to offer in the way of experience in new and different areas."

Helen smirked, "I owe Jethro a favor or two. Plus I admit I'm intrigued by the idea. So, let's talk details…"

-000-

Echo stared at Tony, "But, that's cheating!"

Raising an eyebrow, Tony asked, "Really? Lesson time: when the FBI Agent and I made arrangements for this little exercise, we didn't discuss pre-game activities. So - fair game. Here's another tip – he's out there doing the same thing for the same reason. Keep that in mind when you're going in after a fugitive. You have to assume they're going to do anything and everything they can to stop you from finding him or her. Get out of your 'play fair' headspace. Any questions about this?"

Echo looked like he'd swallowed something sour. "Just doesn't seem right, though."

Tony made a mental note to take Echo aside sometime soon and have a private chat with him. Motioning for the other two bags to be emptied on the table, Tony roughly sorted out the "raw materials" he'd gathered up for this exercise. Picking up several items, he held them up and asked the group, "Ok, what can we use these for, and where would be the best place to set them up. Where's the detail map?"

As the probies warmed up to the exercise, they tossed in suggestions and ideas, grabbing other items from the table to help illustrate their ideas. As Tony picked apart the ideas, pointing out where there might be problems, he challenged them to work around the weak points, and offered up a couple of ideas of his own. Within an hour, they had several ideas worked out and were ready to barge into the woods and set them up….

-000-

As Vance and the Chief worked out the final details of their agreement, the Commander and Mary Farmer stood to one side quietly discussing a case Mary had been working on that was being passed to another detective. Gibbs sat silently observing while they waited, speculating on how Farmer and DiNozzo would get along.

Vance's secretary buzzed his intercom and announced that Special Agent McGee had arrived. Asking the Metro officers to wait in his office, Vance stood and led Gibbs out of his office. "Special Agent McGee, let's take this to the conference room."

-000-

Tony grinned at his probies, "Ok, trust me, FBI probies are probably already fanning out in the woods to set their own little surprises. So….how can we take advantage of that?"

After a brief pause, Alpha laughed out loud. Smugly, she leaned forward rummaging through the pile of supplies until she found what she was looking for, "Here's what we're gonna do…"

-000-

"McGee, sit." Gibbs ordered, pointing at a chair at the conference table.

Vance laid the packet with the disciplinary paperwork on the table in front of him. As Gibbs poured himself another cup of coffee, he smoothed down his tie and sat, waiting for McGee to take his seat.

"Special Agent McGee, IA submitted its final report, and this meeting is to inform you of the disciplinary sanctions that are being imposed upon you. The investigation showed you violated several NCIS policies and regulations during the Royal Woods assignment when you switched your com unit off while Special Agent DiNozzo was out canvassing residents in the neighborhood. Fortunately for you, since Agent DiNozzo suffered no harm, there will be no criminal charges filed."

Both men could see the subtle relaxation in McGee as he passed by first possible sanction unscathed.

"Do you have anything you want taken into consideration before we proceed?"

Glancing at Gibbs, who sat watching him expressionless, he swallowed and tried to pull himself together. "Director Vance, I would like to state that I have given long and hard thought as to why the equipment was turned off, and have determined that I failed to take the assignment as seriously as I should have. The circumstances…the nature of the assignment…I made a misjudgment. I have been beating myself up over what happened, and can guarantee you that I will never do anything like that again. It was wrong. It was unprofessional. And I am sorry I did it."

Gibbs cut Vance off, pinning McGee with his glare, ratcheting the intensity up another notch, "I don't hear the real reason coming out of your mouth, McGee. You wanna try that again?"

Darting glances around to avoid Gibbs' glare, nervous, and knowing what Gibbs wanted, McGee resigned himself to the certainty that Gibbs wouldn't be satisfied until he admitted out loud the real reason. Resigned, he said quietly, "I didn't respect Tony…Special Agent DiNozzo. When he was canvassing, I let my lack of respect for him influence my judgment." Glancing at Gibbs out of the corner of his eye, he finished with, "I should have known better. I do know better."

Gibbs hit the table with a fist, making everyone jump, "Damn right you should have known better."

A shudder ran through McGee at Gibbs' words. He thought back to his first days on the team during the hunt for Ari and how angry Gibbs had been. This might be even worse than that, he thought. Of anything that could happen to him right now, he knew Gibbs disappointment would cut the deepest.

Vance spoke flatly, "Special Agent McGee, you are on probation for 18 months. You have been suspended without pay for the amount of time you have been stationed at home pending the outcome of this review. Your pay will be reduced twenty percent for the first six months of your probation. It will be reinstated in five percent increments every two months until you are back to your current pay level as long as you are performing satisfactorily. You will be required to study all relevant training manuals, and sit and pass all exams related to your Special Agent status before you are reinstated to regular status."

McGee listened in growing amazement. The probation would suck, and the pay cut would be uncomfortable, but it didn't sound like he was going to be terminated. He felt his hope rising.

Vance opened his cell and made a call, "Ms. Summers, please escort our guests to the conference room." Closing the phone he and Gibbs shared a glance. Suddenly the hope McGee had felt started slipping away. What was going on?

-000-

Sitting, wedged high in the tree, Charlie raised her binoculars carefully scanning the forest below. Several minutes passed before she caught her breath. There! The first glimpse of the enemy! Feeling her breath quicken with excitement, she had to force herself to stay still. Speaking quietly into her wrist mike, she said, "Tally-ho! One boogie is about ten feet west of the 'A' trail south of the stream about 100 feet. Looks like he's setting some sort of trap!"

Back at the picnic table "base camp", Tony snorted and shook his head in amusement as he listened to the rest of the probies excited insisting they were the closest to the 'boogie' and would take care of him. This was going better than he thought it would. Idly he wondered how McGee was doing…

-000-

The door to the conference room opened and the three Metro officers entered. As Gibbs refilled his cup again, Vance made the introductions. "Metro Police Chief Helen Case, Commander Pandora Chao, and Detective Mary Farmer, this is Special Agent Timothy McGee."

All three women turned their eyes on him, and he felt a chill run though his body. Metro PD? Was he going to be arrested? What was happening?

TBC


	20. Chapter 20

I've been debating whether to include the long 'training' session in this chapter, instead focusing on McGee's sanctions, but after long thought, I decided that one objective of this story is to demonstrate Tony's competence, and guiding his impromptu passel of probies along helps showcase some of his skills. Plus have some fun. If you don't want to bother with that part of the story (John, this is fondly for you), just skip forward through the training exercise. Never played laser tag, so the rules here were created by Tony and Slac…er, Sacks. Future training exercises will be much shorter. Meanwhile, as usual, my deepest gratitude for readers, reviewers, guests, and PMers. Tonight 'thanks' brings hot spiced apple cider, and a sideboard of pies of all sorts - never-ending toppings included. Or, just have a bowl of toppings!

Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for a little fun.

Chapter 20

Tony and Sacks stood next to each other, watching the monitor in the small roadside cabin that served as the laser tag office. Multiple remote video cameras fed images to the monitor, allowing the two men to watch the action. Without removing his eyes from the screen, Tony shifted his weight, idly setting the end of the cane down allowing him to take the pressure off his right leg.

Sacks swore as the cane came to rest on top of his left foot. "Watch it! You did that on purpose!"

Tony looked startled, "What?" He innocently looked down, saw Sacks shaking his foot, and said, "Oh – sorry." As he turned back to the monitor, he smirked, irritating Sack that much further.

Keeping half an eye on DiNozzo, the two turned back to the monitor. Alpha was luring one of Sacks' probies down a path, glancing back over her shoulder, her expression a mix of excitement, wariness, and calculation. Still looking back, she felt a tripwire catch on her leg. Deliberately snapping it, she moved on carefully watching where she stepped. Slipping behind the trunk of a large oak tree, she hunkered down, holding her breath, trying to be as quiet as possible. Raising her phaser, she listened intently, waiting.

Twenty feet away, her FBI probie pursuer paused, puzzled. Stooping he examined the broken tripwire, following it back to where it had been rigged to release several low branches which should have swept out to hit the unlucky person who'd snagged it. Without leaving the path to push through heavy undergrowth, he couldn't track it all the way to the branches – if he had, he would have seen where one of Tony's pack of probies had driven a stake into the ground and wound the tripwire around it before continuing up to the branches.

Shaking his head, he stood, dusted off his knees, raised his phaser, and continued on in pursuit. Before he'd taken more than a couple of steps, he felt something pull at his leg. Above he heard a loud snap and a cacophony of jingle bells sounding, startling him. Looking up, he didn't see Alpha ease far enough around the trunk to line up her sights on the target on his vest and pull the trigger. A loud buzzer and mechanical "target destroyed" voice sounded. Stunned, the man stared at Alpha, mouth open to protest.

Tony grinned widely at Sacks, pounding him on the back, "First blood!"

Smirking, Alpha slid back out of sight and turned to head to her next assigned area….just to be nailed by a FBI probie who had slipped up behind her. Furious, she hissed at him, "You're gonna be next."

Sacks looked smugly at Tony, "Easy peasy as pie." Tony looked at him with a WTF expression, "Easy peasy? What are you, back in kindergarten?"

Turning, Alpha glared at the FBI probie she'd just taken out, and when she saw his grin she strode up to him until they were separated by inches and pasted a "Gibbs Glare" on her face. As the probie slowly lost his smile and backed away from her, swallowing, she stalked him until he moved off the path allowing her to pass. She waited until she was well along the trail before she grinned.

Tony crowed, "Nice glare of defeat! Gibbs couldn't have done it better!" He waved the cane around excitedly.

Jumping back out of range, Sacks looked sour, "Can't change the fact that your probie got nailed by one of mine though – stealth attack!"

Grinning still, Tony snapped back, "The day is young still." He waved the cane around one last time in Sack's direction before returning to the monitor.

-000-

A monstrous hulk of a FBI probie crept along, his phaser almost swallowed in his big hands, peering around, trying to be inconspicuous. Charlie thought he'd be a shoe-in for the Green Hulk if he fell into a vat of green paint. Keeping a wary eye out for other players, she scuttled back to where Bravo waited near a large windthrow at the edge of a clearing. Signaling to him, he sat down leaning against the downed tree trunk, head drooping to his chest, simulating an unconscious man. He grasped his phaser firmly, hidden on the far side of his body. Charlie bit a corner off a packet of ketchup and smeared the contents over her hands, and dabbed a little on Bravo's forehead. Leaving her phaser laying on the ground half behind her, she looked over her shoulder until she saw movement in the bushes behind her.

In a half-strangled desperate plea, she begged her partner, "Open your eyes! Please! How bad are you hurt? Please – open your eyes!" Spinning around alarmed as the Hulk moved into the clearing, she held out her 'bloody' hands, keeping them moving so he couldn't get a clear view of them, eyes wide with fright. "He's hurt! What do I do?"

Sacks asked, "What are they doing?"

Tony narrowed his eyes in thought, then brightened, "Trap! Excellent!"

"What? Is that legal?"

Grinning madly, Tony asked, "Did you specifically exclude it in the rules?"

Sacks screwed up his face, angry, but didn't say anything.

Tony turned back to the monitor, crooning, "Way to go probies…."

Cautiously the FBI probie proceeded painstakingly slowly, keeping an eye on both her and the man at her feet. As he drew closer, Charlie, ignored her phaser laying on the ground, turned back to Bravo, hands hovering over his still form. The Hulk, seeing her phaser out of her reach, relaxed slightly.

As Charlie's hand hovered over Bravo's forehead, blocking a clear sight of the "wound" weeping ketchup, she glanced up at the Hulk, "I think he hit his head. Do you think we should move him?" She bit at her lip, looking anxious and worried. "I can't believe this! No one was supposed to get hurt!"

Finally, the Hulk had moved close enough to stretch a hand out to feel for a pulse in Bravo's neck. "What happened?"

"He…he…" Charlie waivered a little, and the Hulk glanced at her, alarmed she might pass out. His eyes snapped back to Bravo as the man raised his phaser smoothly out of hiding and nailed him in the center of his chest before he could swing his own phaser around. "Target destroyed," sounded clearly.

Rising, the Hulk glared at both of them. "That's cheating."

Bravo raised an eyebrow as he rose, dusting himself off. "Really? How so?"

"You're not supposed to…to trick others to win."

Charlie and Bravo exchanged glances. Charlie said, "I don't remember anything in the agreed-upon rules forbidding it, do you? Besides, how many traps has your side set, huh? Same idea, different method."

The Hulk's eyebrows raised, "What?"

Smiling at him, Charlie licked the ketchup off her fingers. Reaching up to touch the last of the ketchup to the tip of his nose, she said, 'Tag, you're dead." With that the two NCIS probies turned and left the man staring after them, open mouthed.

-000-

Twenty minutes later, Bravo had met up with Echo at a pre-arranged meeting place and they were making their way to one of the traps they'd set up earlier. They hadn't run across any of their own or the FBI team and wondered where they'd all had gone. As they were moving across an open glen, Echo spotted a movement off to their right - one of the FBI probies was moving toward them. Echo knew she'd spot them before they could reach cover.

Biting his lip, he tried to think of how to handle this situation. _Be creative. Do the unexpected_. He could hear Tony's advice, and tried to think of something unexpected. An idea popped into his head that was so far out in left field, he wondered for a moment if it was just a little too crazy.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the FBI probie drawing closer.

Before he could freeze up in indecision, he turned to Bravo and whispered urgently, "FBI probie will be in sight in just a few seconds at your 10 o'clock position. Follow my lead? It's crazy, but it might work."

At Echo's half-nod, Bravo said, "Hug me. Pretend to be kissing. Keep your eyes cracked open just a little until you spot the FBI goon. Keep your phaser between us out of sight. If this goes as I hope…"

Echo's eyes widened in incredulity, but before he could say anything, he saw movement behind Bravo. Wondering if he was going to regret this, he grabbed Bravo pulling him closer, tipping his head until his lips were hovering over the corner of Bravo's mouth. Bravo put his own hands on Echo's shoulders and moved closer until he could whisper into Echo's ear, "If this doesn't work out, we deny it ever happened, right?"

Echo muttered, "Even if it works, we should deny it."

Bravo snorted a half-laugh. "What's happening?"

Pulling Bravo a little closer, he whispered softly, "Someone's getting an eyeful and is about to catch flies with that gaping mouth of hers. She needs to step out from behind that tree then I can nail her."

"Then let's step it up, bro." Bravo wrapped his arms around Echo's neck, taking care to not block his line of sight. He straightened slightly, and said loud enough for the watcher to just hear, "We can't let anyone know. They'd post us in different cities if they found out." He let his voice trail off in volume and kept muttering.

Echo said, "It's working, she's moving out a bit – probably trying to hear us."

Bravo said, "Maybe I can help her decide then." With an amused snort, he raised his voice and said breathlessly, "Oh! That's so good! More please?"

Echo winced, then grinned. Raising the phaser, he sighted and fired in less than a second, catching their watcher completely by surprise. "Target destroyed."

As the startled woman, dropped her phaser and grabbed at her vest in surprise, Bravo and Echo turned to face her. As she watched, astounded, they waved at her, turned, and ran off and out of sight.

Tony fell back laughing his head off. "That was great! I'm so proud of them!"

Sacks regarded him with disgust and horror. "That was…" He stopped unable to find the right words to express his revulsion.

Seeing Sacks reaction, Tony started laughing all over again. "Ah c'mon, Sacks. It worked. Proof's in the pudding. You gotta admit it was effective."

Ignoring him, Sacks turned back to the monitor, wondering if it was a requirement for all NCIS agents to be crazy to get hired.

-000-

Echo pair up again with Charlie to check out an FBI trap he'd sabotaged earlier. He was hoping to find the FBI probie who'd set the trap hanging around and nail him if he could.

Bravo paired up with Charlie to scout from up a tree they'd already checked out before the game had started. They hoped to spot one of the two FBI probies remaining afoot. When they heard an air horn sound a couple of hundred feet from their current position, Charlie grabbed Bravo's arm, "That's one of my traps. C'mon!"

Quickly, but carefully, they moved toward the tripped trap, slowing as they came closer. Both sank down to one knee when they reached a point just out of sight of where the trap had been set. After several minutes of watching and looking, neither spotted anyone close by.

Bravo said in a whisper, "Maybe whoever tripped it moved out of the area to avoid being spotted."

Nodding, Charlie whispered back, "Could be. Let's move closer." She pointed to a thicket of heavy brush a few dozen feet closer to the trap's location. "Head there. We can see the area right around the trap from there."

Nodding, both of them slowly crept forward. Kneeling down behind the screening vegetation, both froze, scanning the forest area slowly, methodically. Just as Charlie turned her head to whisper to Bravo, her vest sounded, "Target destroyed." She stared down in shock, trying to see which sensor had been hit. Bravo saw the sensor on her back flashing and turned to look for the shooter behind them. The area was empty. What?

His left shoulder sensor started flashing, "Target destroyed." Both were on their feet now, swinging around frantically, trying to spot the shooter. There was a scuffing sound overhead, and both jumped as a madly grinning FBI probie dropped from a low branch in the tree above where she'd been concealed by ivy vines wound around the base of the tree and up its trunk. Waving, she sprinted off, disappearing in the undergrowth.

Bravo swore under his breath, while Charlie took her frustration out on an innocent bush, kicking it several times before getting herself under control. With a sour glare, both headed back to the cabin, thoroughly disgusted.

Sacks crowed with delight. "Well, guess that decides who's better at ambushes, doesn't it, DiNutzo."

With a scowl, Tony said, "I wouldn't get too stoked up yet, Slacks. The game isn't over yet."

Unable to contain himself, Sacks slam-dunked an imaginary hoop happily as they turned back to the monitor.

Feet soaked and freezing, Echo refused to move from where he stood on wet rocks along the side of the stream under a thick covering of shrubs. Since the stream was quiet and relatively slow-moving, he knew he'd have better luck relying on sight than hearing, and he was well positioned to take advantage of clear sight-lines. Feeling slightly foolish, he had broken off a few leafy twigs and slipped them through his hair to help disguise his shape. Now, he just had to wait for some hapless FBI probie to come wandering down the path and into his sight, even if it took all day.

Then, just when he was ready to abandon his position or have his feet freeze off, he heard the twang of an FBI trap being sprung, the branches that had been anchored loudly sounding as they were released with a swoosh. Echo wondered who had tripped it; he wasn't sure who was still in play on either side. Hopefully he wasn't the last one out here and stupidly hiding waiting for no one, because he hadn't heard the final bell.

He'd been waiting silently for over ten minutes before he saw movement. Delta – she was moving slowly and deliberately through the undergrowth on the far side of the stream. Keeping an eye on her, he'd continued to watch for anyone following her. He almost missed it – just a flicker at the edge of his line of sight. Holding his breath, he waited. A minute later, he suddenly saw a shape, a head, among the undergrowth several dozen feet behind Delta. Carefully, he took aim and waited.

Delta moved, sliding slowly down the bank into the stream, and disappeared into the heavy growth of tall long grasses bending over the stream's banks at that point in its meanderings through the area. He waited. Seconds ticked by. Just when he thought the hidden watcher hadn't seen Delta, the woman moved. With extraordinary quiet, she slipped through the growth and down to the bank of the stream, just feet from where Delta had been.

Echo took one careful look around to check for anyone else close by before focusing on the person. With a careful squeeze of the trigger, he froze, not moving as her vest announced, "Target destroyed."

The woman spun around, searching for him. He thought more than once that she'd spied him as she stared straight at the bushes in which he was sheltered, but her eyes moved on. Frustrated after a minute of hunting for her assailant, she finally huffed in disgust and crossed the stream and made her way to the path and the cabin.

Tony kept his eyes on the monitor, a half-smile quirking the corner of his mouth. He wasn't aware that, at that moment, Sacks was sure he'd seen the same one on Gibbs' face. Feeling like he should cross himself, Sacks shook off the odd déjà vu feeling and turned back to the monitor, not saying a thing to the other man.

-000-

Unaware of what had happened behind her, Delta eased down the stream keeping at the stream's edge, and hoped she wasn't advertising her location with the motion of the grasses as she moved. Finally reaching a heavily forested area, she slipped out of the stream and moved to crouch behind some long frond ferns. Not too far ahead, was the last double trap she knew of, and was hopeful she'd find a FBI probie lurking around. She hadn't seen any of her team mates in over an hour now and was worried. Several minutes ago, she'd heard a faint "target destroyed" and wondered how many players there were left in the game.

Even more aware of her surroundings that before, she carefully studied the area before slowly making her way to her next selected patch of cover. She could feel the sweat running down under her shirt, and wondered if she'd used enough deodorant that morning before slapping herself silly, figuratively, at such an absurd thought at a time like this.

A whisper of a sound caught her attention and she carefully turned to spot Echo creeping forward slowly, intensely focused on a point off to her left. Settling down, she tried to see what he was looking at, scanning the area he was moving towards. Darn it, she thought – it shouldn't be so hard to spot someone.

Something….some movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention. A foot. A booted foot. Following the foot upward with her eye she saw him – an FBI probie perched on a thick branch of a tree about thirty feet away – his phaser locked onto Echo, following his movement. Why wasn't he firing, she wondered before she realized there was greenery between him and Echo, interfering with his shot - but another ten feet or so Echo would be in the clear. Could she move to cover Echo without getting spotted? Biting her lower lip, she rose and crept forward, seeing Echo move closer to where he was exposed.

Snap. She froze, her foot on the broken twig, hoping the FBI-in-a-tree hadn't heard. Echo was seconds away from getting nailed. She needed to move another five or six feet to get a clear shot at FBI-in-a-tree. Hell, she thought, just do it! Breaking cover, she moved. The man in the tree jerked his head around, spotting her. He started swinging his phaser around towards her. She started raising her phaser towards him. Echo froze, looking in their direction, bringing his phaser around. The FBI probie was fast, she thought, as he fired before she could. Her vest announced, "Target destroyed." Damn!

As she drooped, the man started slipping out of the tree, moving to the opposite side from Echo, shielding him from a direct shot. Hitting the ground, he peered from around the trunk, looking for Echo. Their eyes met, and both fired simultaneously. Both their vests announced, "Target destroyed." But, who was first? Who won?

-000-

"Sit down McGee." Vance pointed back to the chair McGee had risen from in surprise. The others settled down, facing him.

Vance pulled out some papers, glancing through them, "You're being assigned for six months as a liaison with Metro PD, specifically to vice and narcotics. You will be working out in the field with the department's officers and detectives. Your mission is to become familiar with the D.C. drug and human trafficking networks, and to gain experience with how Metro PD, and police departments in general, work these cases. I don't need to tell you how serious these areas are for the military. Should you…"

McGee finally broke in, "Director?

Vance sat back, waiting for him to continue.

McGee rose, tossing the papers onto the table, directing a glare at Gibbs. "No! I am a federal agent, not some cop. You can't make me do this. Gibbs!" He turned, holding out his hands from his side. "Boss, I'm not any use as a cop. You need me here. Don't let…"

Stone faced, Gibbs stared at his Agent, studying his face carefully. "Sit, McGee."

Shaking his head, trying to deny what was happening, McGee remained standing, glancing around, not meeting anyone's gaze.

Gibbs stood and moved to stand in front of McGee. He caught McGee's eyes. "Sit. Down." He waited until McGee sank back down, then leaned in close to his ear and told him in a low, angry voice, not audible to the others, "You will do what you are told. If you do not, you will be fired. Do you get it now, McGee? You screwed up, big time. You're being given one chance, and only one chance, to redeem yourself. You take this assignment, you work it, you learn from it, you get your head out of your ass, and maybe, just maybe, you can ask to come back to the team." He returned to his chair and picked up his cup of coffee, taking a sip as if washing a bad taste out of his mouth.

Shaking his head slightly, denial making a huge burning hole in his middle, McGee thought _was this really happening? _McGee finally saw, deep inside where he couldn't ignore it, how his true feelings about his position, his place, his _importance_ here was based on a belief so deeply rooted that he was better than not only cops, but than most others even at NCIS. He was a technology genius. He was a Special Agent of a federal law enforcement agency. He was **_important_**. Why was that so wrong? Why did he have to waste his time, his skills, his abilities working for six months as a _cop_? What could he possibly learn from that? And who would take his place while he was gone? Surely, Gibbs must know he was needed to work cases. Without his technical expertise, who would find the information Gibbs needed? Surely his boss knew that – why was he doing this?

Turning to Vance, McGee appealed to the Director. He knew Vance valued his skills, his knowledge. Surely he didn't think that working with Metro would teach him anything that would help him work better. And if this was punishment, why keep him working with the cops for _six months_? None of this was making sense.

Vance nodded toward the Captain, "You will be reporting to Captain Chao on Monday. She will be evaluating your work and submitting evaluations that will help determine your options when you return to NCIS." Leaning forward to tap the table with a finger, Vance emphasized, "You will do your best on this assignment, Special Agent McGee. One bad evaluation and there is a real possibility that you will be terminated."

Biting the inside of his lip to keep from showing his frustration, McGee forced himself to nod.

"Captain Chao, do you have any instructions for Special Agent McGee at this time?"

The Captain had been observing closely, and wondered if this was worth the trouble it might bring. But, the Chief wanted it to happen, so it was up to her to make it happen.

"Special Agent McGee, I hope you will enjoy your assignment with us. I'm looking forward to working with you.

"Report to headquarters by 7am on Monday. You'll receive a quick one-on-one orientation, and shown around the precinct. Your first day or two will be spent on a crash course on state and local laws, and another day on procedures, policies, and expectations. You'll be introduced to your partner and to your team. We will evaluated your progress at that time and make any adjustments or additions to your training. You'll be assigned to work with a beat cop for several days, then patrol officers for a longer period of time to become familiar with radio procedures, and field operations. After that you'll be shadowing your team for a short period of time to get an overview of how they work. You'll need to pass a firearms proficiency test during this time. After that you'll be turned loose to work with your assigned team. Your team leader will bring you up to speed on current operations."

McGee sat there for a minute, trying to take it all in. _This was really happening_. Swallowing, he asked, "Who will know why….what happened here?" Please let that remain secret, he prayed. He had no idea how he'd cope if he had to face the hostility and distrust he knew would come his way if it was known he'd abandoned his partner out in the field. _So, why aren't you worried about all the distrust you've experienced here then?_ Because, in spite of everything, he still felt secure here –his expertise would protect him.A sour feeling started in his gut. _Really?_

Not showing how worried she was about this venture, Chao said, "No, no one outside this group will know what happened. You're coming in as a liaison. Officer Farmer here is going to be our liaison to NCIS during this time. If you screw up by not covering your partner's back though, you won't like it, so I suggest you keep that in mind. Cops don't put up with that bullshit. You screw up by not pulling your weight, or not following procedures, or copping an attitude, and you'll find your partners on the force aren't as forgiving as your colleagues here. I suggest you keep that in mind also, Mr. McGee."

A liaison to NCIS? Startled, he looked at the woman, wondering how she got picked for the assignment. Nothing in her looks or demeanor hinted at her qualifications. That sour feeling got stronger. Why was he worried about someone being a liaison….in his place? Officer Farmer met his eyes, but he couldn't read a thing from her expression. He thought of Tony - something about her reminded him of Tony.

Feeling miserable, McGee looked at those present. The women were watching him, evaluating him, making him irritated and worried. Vance looking at him expectantly. Gibbs sat stone-faced him, waiting to see what he'd do. And that was the big question…what would he decide?

A/N: Ziva's turn next. And what does Tony have in mind for the next step in his probies training?


End file.
